Just under half of all property sales in the UK take place on a Friday, states a new report, which found that 458,000 out of 1,035,000 transactions in 2016 took place on that day, with the same proportion of Friday sales in 2017.
“Completing the sale on Friday gives both the seller and buyer an entire weekend to move home, allowing them to unpack essentials without taking too much time off work,” said the report’s sponsor Robby Du Toit. “Since most people prefer Fridays over other days of the week, there is also less of a chance for any disruptions to occur in a property chain.”
Second most popular day was Thursday, followed by Wednesday, Monday and Tuesday. There were a small number of properties sold on a Saturday (444) and Sunday (361) in 2016.
By contrast, prices for homes sold on a Friday are the lowest of any day in the week, averaging £285,277 compared with £363,063 for homes sold on a Sunday.
The report speculated that the profile of home buyers on a Friday may account for the lower price, with potentially more affluent buyers and sellers conducting business on a Sunday. The figures may also relate to statistical averages: since the great majority of purchases are at the lower end of the scale, where there is a small sample (as with the Sunday figures) it can easily be unrepresentative and distorted by a few large sales.
