The records not only reveal signs of encouragement for the UK property market but also highlight a curious pattern of behaviour in the way we look for property.
Rightmove director, Miles Shipside, said: “It’s certainly the case that Monday means property day for the UK public. The trend is clear in our recent site traffic records and it is generally the case that Mondays are Rightmove’s busiest days. Moving home is a significant decision and we’ve found that people come together at the weekend to discuss their next property move and then start the working week by doing their research and making enquiries.”
Rightmove recorded over 30m page impressions on Monday 24th January, toppling the previous records of 29m pages on Monday 17th January and 28.3m pages on Monday 10th January*. The traffic helped to place Rightmove as the 8th busiest website for UK users for the week ending 22nd January, just behind Microsoft’s MSN in 7th place and ahead of BBC News in 9th (Experian Hitwise, January 2011).
High volumes of traffic on Rightmove are also a good signal for the UK property market in general. Rightmove is the UK’s largest property website with a market share of 64% of all visits and 83% of all pages viewed among the top four portals (Experian Hitwise, December 2010). The site is used by buyers, renters, vendors and landlords to research the market and make enquiries to agents.
Shipside added: “High levels of activity on Rightmove are encouraging for all areas the property market. Around this time of year many people turn their attentions to their living plans for the year ahead, and to be doing so in such numbers hints at very strong pent-up demand.”
