Boxing Day brought spike in buyer searches
January 12, 2026 by Brendan O'Neill
Property Market
New research shows the property market in the UK experienced its traditional ‘Boxing Day bounce’ again in 2025, as search traffic for that day hit all-time highs.
Online property search website Rightmove has released data covering that period and it shows a big spike in search numbers on Boxing Day. There was an increase of 93% in the number of property searches, compared with Christmas Day. That is an even more spectacular rise than that of the previous year, when they went up by 87%.
The ‘Boxing Day bounce’ is attributed to people thinking about the future after the festivities are over. The bounce for 2025 represents the highest number of people to visit Rightmove on a single day since the site was launched.
The site also saw rises in measures of seller and buyer engagement during the days after Christmas. There was an increase of 67% in the volume of enquiries to estate agents about property viewings across the five days after Christmas Day compared to the five before.
That five-day period saw a big rise in the number of newly listed properties too. This went up by a massive 143%. The areas where the most buying and selling took place during Boxing Day were London, the East of England and the South East.
Steve Pimblett from Rightmove told Mortgage Introducer that:
“Record breaking visit numbers indicates many are looking to put some of the uncertainty of last year behind them and get going with a 2026 move.”
A buzzing housing market would be good news for mortgage advisors with the CeMAP qualification.
Written by
Brendan O'Neill
You may also interested in:
Rise in mortgage lending predicted over next two years
An increase in the volume of mortgage lending is likely over the course of the next two years, according to the latest projections by the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA).
Stamp duty revenue rises sharply
The tax revenues brought in by stamp duty rose sharply during the last financial year, according to the latest figures to be released.
