Boxing day bounce set to kick-start housing market
A traditional jump in Brits looking for properties at Christmas is set to boost the UK’s housing market after a slow Autumn.
With families gathered, people considering their new year’s housing ambitions, and extra downtime leading to browsing on phones and laptops, estate and letting agents are consistently reporting an uplift in enquiries, according to Propertymark.
“Most years, Boxing Day marks the true start of the new housing cycle,” Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, said.
“Once the festive excitement has passed, people turn their attention to the year ahead, and moving home is often right at the top of that list,” he added.
Last year, buyer demand jumped by 273 per cent between the Christmas Day lull and Boxing Day, and a record number of Boxing Day sellers launched their properties onto the market, according to Rightmove.
‘We’re likely to start 2026 on the front foot’
Turbulence ahead of the Autumn budget – stretching as far back as early summer – put a dampener on the housing market this year, along with still-high mortgage rates and prohibitively high deposits.
Almost three quarters of Brits had been putting their plans to purchase on hold prior to the Budget, according to estate agents Exp.
But with interest rates set to fall further next year, along with a better-than-expected property policy in the Budget, which is set to boost confidence further.
Rumoured measures such as more widespread council tax reform, capital gains tax on high-value residences and replacing stamp duty with an annual property tax were absent, “much to homeowners’ relief”, Alice Haine, personal finance analyst at Bestinvest by Evelyn Partners, said.
“[Now] homeowners have clarity for the year ahead, many appear keen to push forward with their plans,” Adam Day, head of eXp UK and Europe, said.
Of course, this surge in activity may not translate into headline market metrics for the final weeks of 2025, but it does suggest that we are likely to start 2026 very much on the front foot.
“With so many buyers preparing to book early-January viewings, market momentum should begin to build almost immediately, helping to negate any traditional property-market January blues,” Day said.