It’s long been publicised that the last Friday in August is the busiest day for house completions. It makes sense; it’s the summer holidays so many workers are on annual leave and homemovers often want to settle in before the new school year begins. Many prefer to move in August’s warmer weather as it’s far more appealing than hauling boxes during winter’s wind, rain or snow! The last Friday in August can also coincide nicely with the August bank holiday, giving movers an extra-long weekend to unpack. With all of these factors combined, it’s easy to see why the last Friday in August is the most popular day of the year to move.
However, we have delved deep into the data and debunked this claim!
The table below displays the busiest top ten days for the years 2020 to 2024. We’ve highlighted the last Friday of August for each year, and as you can see, the highest that this day placed was fourth in 2024. It’s important to note that the pandemic and the stamp duty holiday have significantly impacted the results for 2020 and 2021. The stamp duty holiday ran between 8th July 2020 and 30th June 2021. It prompted those who were on the fence about moving or lacked the savings to cover stamp duty costs to rush and list their homes for sale. This explains why the last Friday in August languished in the seventeenth spot in 2021, being eclipsed by the surge of completions during the stamp duty holiday.
It comes as little surprise that the busiest day overall from the five years was the last day of the stamp duty holiday, 30th June 2021 with 30,448 completions. Conveyancers up and down the country rushed to help their clients get their homes over the line before the stamp duty levy was re-established on the 1st of July.
Ranking of the busiest moving day in 2020-2024
Arguably, 2022 to 2024 were closer to normal property market years, and yet the last Friday of August only made it to ninth, tenth and fourth respectively. Our analysts discovered that, in fact, the busiest day last year occurred on 28th June followed closely by 28th March.
Even in 2022, when the last Friday of the month fell on the long bank holiday weekend, the last Friday in August only managed to reach ninth place.
As expected, all bar one of the dates in the top ten for 2024 was the last working day of the month. The end of the month is a popular completion time as homemovers can schedule their first mortgage payment to coincide with payday, helping with cash flow. The only anomaly to this last day of the month trend was the 24th of May in the seventh spot – and evidently due to the push from homeowners to get into their new abode over the late May bank holiday weekend to have more time to unpack.
Is August the busiest month?
As well as having the reputed busiest day of the year, August has long been considered the busiest move month overall. Based on the number of completions for the years 2020 to 2024, August was actually seventh overall. June secured the top position, followed by March and then September.
The busiest month to move 2020-2024
Again, we must take into account the effect of the pandemic and the stamp duty holiday when considering these results. When we look at 2022 to 2024 in isolation and remove potential skewing from the stamp duty holiday, the results are very different:
The busiest month to move 2022-2024
August IS the busiest move month, followed by March and then October in third position. January falls to the bottom, as the least popular month to move, as people recover from the cost and chaos of Christmas. Let’s not forget that conveyancing shutdowns over the festive period also delay transaction completions for the start of the year.
Let’s go a little more granular and look at the breakdown for each year:
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Total completions per month in 2020-2024
The years 2020 and 2021 are skewed heavily toward when stamp duty was lifted, with the latter months of 2020 and earlier months of 2021 topping the chart. It’s to be expected that June came out first in 2021. The stamp duty holiday ended on 30th June, so many homemovers rushed through their move to avoid paying. When we look at 2022 and 2023, August returned as the busiest completion month. Last year, August ranked third, but we need to take into account that datasets for 2024 are not fully complete, as some complex transaction data can take longer to log.
The only real trend we can conclude is that, unsurprisingly, summer and springtime rank higher than colder months for completions.
Friday still reigns supreme
When it comes to the busiest day, unsurprisingly, Friday remains the most popular. Many prefer to move house over the weekend, so will actively choose a Friday completion. Our analysts found these results as expected. Notably, though, Monday became a popular day in 2020, ranking second when typically, it’s the third busiest. This may be because there were two Mondays that fell on the last working day of the month in 2020. (However, it was the pandemic, so many of the rules went out the window!) The weekend barely makes a blip on our chart in comparison to Friday’s popularity, and Sunday remains the quietest day to move as most businesses are closed.
The busiest day to move 2020-2024
Are movers superstitious?
Since Friday is the most popular day, we thought it would be interesting to see if homemovers are superstitious and avoid moving on Friday the 13th. We took a look at each instance of Friday the 13th over the five years to find out how they ranked in popularity for moving:
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Where each Friday 13th ranked 2020-2024
It does appear that Friday 13th falls quite far down the list of busiest Fridays in their respective year. This suggests that people could be actively avoiding moving on this date. However, we must keep in mind that some of the reasons behind this are because the thirteenth is mid-month and, as we mentioned, people tend to opt for an end-of-month completion.
Completion tracking
The media continues to peddle the narrative that the last Friday in August is the busiest move date, but our analysis has revealed that the last two years have seen the last Friday in June as the busiest day. Some movers are keen to settle in before the summer holidays begin. For all those involved in the property market, recognising and preparing for this peak, alongside the busiest month of August, will make a difference in delivering smooth moves.
We track 99.6% of all UK sales and rental moves here at TwentyCi. We have all the facts and figures you need to know about the property market. If you want to learn more, get in touch.