Time for a late launch

There can be advantages to selling certain properties in the colder months, discovers Kirsty Mcluckie

This time of year is traditionally quiet for property sales, as most people wanting to move try to time migration for spring and summer, when light nights allow late viewings, gardens are looking their best and there is time to deal with the upheaval of moving a family before the start of school.

But increasingly, the market is becoming less seasonal as significant properties are still launching this late in November.

Ed Douglas-home, of Knight Frank says: “I don’t think for most sellers it is usually a deliberate plan to launch on the market this late, but if that is necessary, the demand is there for certain types of property.

“In Edinburgh, family houses on the Southside, for example, are still selling well, so we haven’t tried to dissuade people from selling now if that is what is convenient for them.”

He says there is still a cut off date, but it is much later than previous years. “Buyers might be too distracted by the run up to Christmas to want to house hunt, so we wouldn’t advise a December launch unless absolutlely necessary.”

A property still being advertised for sale over the festivities used to be seen as a mark of desperation, but virtual house hunting has changed that perception.

Douglas-home says: “In past years we might be inclined to take a property off the market during the Christmas period, to give sellers a break, but the way people search for property has changed.

“The Knight Frank app has its most traffic on Boxing Day each year. It is the time where people seem to sit around with their families, make decisions, and want to start looking straightaway.”

A disadvantage of viewing a property in winter can be that the garden isn’t at its best but Douglashome points out that if you fall in love with a house on a rainy day in November, then you are less likely to be disappointed by the summer.

With older properties, it also definitely a bonus to be able to check how draughty a house is on the coldest of winter days.

If you fall in love with a house on a rainy day in November, you are less likely to be disappointed by the summer