Boris Bounce doubles number of leads generated for agents

An online valuation service says the number of leads it generated for agents in January was over double the figure in December - and it puts it down to the Boris Bounce.

The ValPal Network says its members generated 83,158 leads during January from prospective sellers and landlords requesting an instant online valuation of their property from an agent's website.

This represents a huge increase from the 37,400 online valuations leads generated by its agents during December.

January's total is the highest monthly number of online valuation sales leads generated by agents since October 2018 when the figure peaked at 102,999.

Throughout 2019, the number of leads generated by The ValPal Network each month hovered between 40,000 and 60,000, demonstrating the scale of the rise seen of January's figure.

Last month was also well ahead of the previous recent January figures - up from 45,565 leads in January 2019, 60,051 in January 2018 and 44,481 in January 2017.

The ValPal Network - a product of Angels Media, publisher of Estate Agent Today and the other Today industry titles - has 800 brands and some 4,000 agency offices amongst its members. 

"The election came less than two weeks before Christmas, so it’s likely many consumers waited until the New Year kicked off before acting on their interest – in many cases after a period of planning and discussion over the holidays” says Craig Vile, the network’s director.

He says these figures come on top of impressive January performances from Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket. 

"This increase in activity from prospective sellers and landlords paired with the rise in visits to the major portals shows people are more confident about market conditions and subsequently more committed to taking action in 2020” according to Vile.

He urges firms to capitalise on the boom by promoting their brands in what is likely to be an increasingly competitive agency market through a combination of prospecting, canvassing, social media and pay per click advertising, content marketing and PR.