Housing market activity buoyant in January

The New Year has proved to be a catalyst for house-hunters looking to buy or rent property, new data suggests. Moneypenny reports that there was a significant rise in the volume of calls to estate and letting agents to request property viewings in January. The telephone answering specialist reported that there was a 70.8 per cent increase in the volume of calls handled last month compared with December, while there was also a marked increase on the corresponding period last year when the average calls concerning viewing requests saw a 32.5 per cent spike. In particular, viewing requests for residential sales rose by 77.6 per cent and by 57.2 per cent for lettings. Samantha Jones, Moneypenny’s Commercial Manager – Corporate and Property, commented, “We typically see a rise in viewing requests in January, but this year we anticipated that figure would increase. With major advertising campaigns run by portals like Rightmove and Zoopla over the Christmas period, as well as the April 1st Stamp Duty deadline looming, there have been a number of factors that could have potentially acted as a catalyst for those looking to buy.” The sharp increase in activity witnessed by Moneypenny reflects recent figures from Rightmove…