Newly released data has revealed that, for the last 12 years, August has been the most popular month to move home.
And, according to research, this year will be no exception as August 30th is predicted to be this year's busiest moving day for Brits.
Based on figures from the English Housing survey, there were 625,000 owner occupier moves in England in 2016-2017 or approximately 1,700 moves per day. On the most popular day of the year, 3.8 times this level (approximately 6,500 moves) are expected. Looking at the most popular month and days to move, this translates into 75,000 homeowners moving in the month of August, alone and 175,000 homeowners moving on Fridays over the course of the year.
It may appear sensible to move on a Friday, so you have time to unpack and settle in over the weekend before heading back to work. But we advise people to be exceptionally careful if they move on a Friday. On this particular Friday, 30th August, with even more moves expected to be happening than usual, it's paramount that people are as organised as possible.
Of course delays can occur at any time, but issues with transfers of funds are more likely to happen on a Friday when banks, conveyancers and removal firms are stretched to the limit as it’s the time when most housing deals tend to complete. On the last Friday of the month bank money transfers can get overloaded and it’s peak time for conveyancing fraud. If there are delays in transferring funds, you may have to spend the weekend in a hotel or on friends’ and families’ sofa.
Further moving day research discovered 115,000 delayed moves annually. One in five homeowners (19%) who bought their home between 2016 and 2018 had moving day delays because of sellers vacating their homes late or funds not being cleared on time.
A quarter (25%) of these homeowners incurred costs of more than £500 on average, with one in seven (14%) of them losing more than £1,000 in costs, including removal firms cancellation charges and hourly waiting charges, storage fees, hotel/ accommodation costs and late completion charges.
