Rightmove defies critics and enjoys its busiest ever ...

Rightmove may continue to be a target for criticism from some agents and rival portals but it has just enjoyed it busiest ever month for visits.

In January it had over 150 million visits for the first time.

Specifically there were over 152 million visits, a seven per cent increase on January 2019. The previous record for the busiest month was in May 2019.

The top five busiest days ever on Rightmove were all after January 21 this year with Wednesday January 29 topping the list.

There were over 5.7 million visits on that day, up nine per cent on the previous record.

Time spent by home hunters on the site was up four per cent with people spending a total of 1.17 billion minutes.

The number of sales being agreed by agents was up 12 per cent compared to the same month in 2019, the biggest year-on-yearjump in any month since July 2017.

London saw the biggest uplift, up 26 per cent year-on-year, followed by the East of England, up 20 per cent.

“Home-movers have sprung into action in 2020, with a large number of agents telling us that sales and valuations have picked up significantly in their local areas” according to Rightmove director Miles Shipside.

“There’s still an imbalance, with demand growing at a faster rate than new supply and no clear sign yet of any uplift in new listings compared to this time last year, but we could see a new wave of sellers in the coming weeks.

“The annual jump in sales agreed numbers is the highest we’ve seen in any month since the summer of 2017, which saw a significant uplift compared to summer 2016 because of the short-term dip in activity immediately after the Brexit vote.

“The stage certainly looks set for an active spring if those sellers considering putting their homes up for sale end up doing so, but to catch this wave of buyer momentum sellers should take care not to over-price their homes. It’s still a price sensitive market and there’s a limit to what buyers can borrow even though mortgage interest rates are temptingly low.”