February is the best time to get your home sold
- February is the best month to sell a home, based on the likelihood that a seller will be able to successfully find a buyer, new research from Rightmove reveals
- In a tightly contested piece of analysis based on millions of homes sold over ten years, February came out on top as the best month to sell, with seven in ten (68.9%) homes listed for sale in the month going on to find a buyer
- January and March tied for second place, with 68.8% of homes listed in these months going on to find a buyer, followed by the popular Spring moving months of April (68.7%) and May (67.7%)
- October came bottom of the list; however, 65.4% of homes listed for sale in this month still find a buyer on average
- At the end of last year government consulted on reforms to digitise the homebuying process, introduce new mandatory qualifications for agents and drive up transparency, with changes expected to cut transaction times by around four weeks for first time buyers
New analysis from the UK’s largest property platform, Rightmove, reveals that February is the best month to get your home sold, based on the likelihood of successfully finding a buyer.
The analysis looked at millions of properties listed for sale over a ten-year period between 2014 and 2024. 2020 was excluded from the analysis due to the pandemic, while 2025 was excluded to account for homes listed later in the year, which may still be waiting to find a buyer.
February is the best month to get your home sold on average
In a tightly contested piece of analysis, February just came out on top as the best month to get a home sold, with 68.9% of homes listed for sale in the month going on to successfully find a buyer.
January, typically when activity starts ramping up after a quieter Christmas period, and March, the popular Spring selling month, tied for second place. In both months, 68.8% of homes listed for sale go on to find a buyer on average.
Spring is typically known as the peak Spring buying and selling season. With it taking a lengthy seven months on average to find a buyer for a home and complete an onward purchase, many aim to progress moves here to try and get into a new home before Christmas.
In third place came April (68.7%) and then May (67.7%), further highlighting the popularity of the Spring moving season.
Although October came at the bottom of the list, 65.4% of homes listed in this month still go on to find a buyer on average, not far below February’s rate, highlighting that the best time to come to market is when home-movers are ready and motivated.
What else did the data show?
In other metrics, January was identified as the quickest month to find a buyer on average, even if it was just pipped by February as the most successful month to sell.
Homes listed for sale in January over the ten-year analysis found a buyer in an average of 47 days. February was the next quickest at 48 days.
March came out as the busiest month overall for home-moving activity. It’s the month with the largest number of properties newly listed on the market for sale, when most buyers come to the market on average across the year, and when most overall sales are agreed on average.
What do the experts think?
Colleen Babcock, Rightmove’s property expert, says: “It’s a tight contest, but on average February is the best month to get your home sold, followed by further strong months during the upcoming and very important Spring home-moving season. Sellers who are yet to act but are considering a 2026 move might consider coming to market soon to take advantage of the increase in home-buyer activity.”
Commenting in relation to the data, Steve Reed, Housing Secretar,y says: “Selling a home is often about a fresh start – a bigger place, a growing family, or a new chapter – but too often the process makes it far harder than it needs to be.
“We’re making changes to the buying and selling process to get the system moving more quickly, stop transactions falling through, and remove all that unnecessary stress during what should be a really exciting next step towards their dream home.”
John Baybut, Managing Director at Berkeley Shaw Real Estate in Liverpool, said: “Outside of the usual seasonality of the UK property market, conditions are strong due to lower interest rates. Despite rhetoric around the economy, the UK market has consistently performed well for decades and property continues to grow in value well over the long term. February is usually one of the busiest months of the year with lots of new listings for sale, so serious buyers need to be ready, with mortgages in place and their own homes sold subject to contract to be first in line for the choice of homes available.”
Mike Sharman, Group Managing Director at Sharman Quinney, says: “The January market is typically a very full-on time with vendors looking to make their move in the forthcoming year. February and March are usually the months when a lot of new properties come to the market, mainly driven by the early spring arrival. Typically, these vendors have surveyed the market, viewed a lot of properties and made a commitment to come to the market.”
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