Rightmove flying with record visits as buying frenzy continues

Rightmove has so far this year recorded 20 of its busiest ever days for visits to the site as the current buying frenzy appears to show few signs of abating. 

It set an all-time new record last Wednesday, April 7, when there were over 9.3 million visits.

The day before, Tuesday April 6, was a new record set for the number of people sending enquiries to agents about properties up for sale, beating the previous record last month.

The portal says that across Great Britain almost two out of every three properties are currently SSTC, and available stock is down 26 per cent on this time last year - although Rightmove notes this comparison is with a time when the housing market was closed in April 2020.

New properties coming up for sale greatly improved last month and were 51 per cent  higher than in February, but demand is still outstripping supply in a number of areas.

Rightmove’s director of property data Tim Bannister says: “Areas around the North and South West are the stand-out seller’s markets right now, and places in Cornwall and Devon are continuing the trend of a desire to move to the seaside and countryside. 

“Suburbs are also faring well as some people move further out from the centre of cities."

“Both sale and rental properties in city centres have been suffering over the past year as the usual appeal to live there has temporarily been taken away, leading to more stock than usual being available, but we may see these start to shift more quickly over the next few months as lockdown restrictions continue to be removed.

“In a traditional year there would be a couple of record days for visits or enquiries being sent by home-hunters, but the pace of the current market caused by a combination of restrictions easing, a desire for more space and people considering different locations, has led to records tumbling week after week.”