Congrats to everyone involved in making the ‘Boxing Day Bounce’ a thing.
Like Black Friday or Pancake Tuesday, guiding people to behave in certain ways on certain days is a genius way of ensuring that there is a collective focus on what you want them to be doing.
And we want them to be listing and searching for property, preferably just before the New Year dawns.
Rightmove were quickly out of the traps this week with the news that there was a nicely symmetrical 26% bump in new listings on their site on 26 December. I know many, many agents that had got many, many of their vendors to instruct weeks in advance – but held back until Boxing Day to actually list the property on the market. Hence the big jump in stock – which was paired with a slightly underwhelming 8% increase in searches in 2023 versus 2022.
Speaking to agents this first week back in 2024, the efforts seem to have been worth it. I know that there is some squeamishness about whether the industry ought to be so formulaic in presenting a single day as the most critical one in the property calendar. However, seeing the effect that this has had on vendors being aware of the Boxing Day Bounce – and their willingness to participate in it – means that supply has been locked and loaded before 2024 rolled around, allowing the year to genuinely start with momentum already built.
Looking further ahead, talk of interest rate falls and mortgage wars is also helping to create some real confidence out there. What could have been a pretty bleak start to the year is seeing instead, through the ‘Boxing Day Bounce’ marketing, more much-needed transaction activity at the earliest possible time in January.
Of course, agents can provide their registered users with ‘sneak peeks’ of what’s coming out on 26 December pre-Christmas, to drive up their prospect lists. Of course they can tease properties out on social media to drive followers seeking ‘Secret Escapes’-style property intrigue. This can privilege these applicants without having any downside impact on when the properties hit the portals on Boxing Day – in fact, it highlights why being a subscriber to an agent’s list is more important than a Rightmove property alert.
This needs to become a fully-supported annual celebration of great property. Long may it keep bouncing.
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