Big surge in rental leads for agents, claims Rightmove

Rightmove says there’s been a big rise in the number of prospective tenants contacting letting agents via its website.

The portal says that so far in February the figure is 35 per cent higher than this time last year, and comes on top of other record figures revealed in a statement to the trade press. 

It says it’s recently had ts busiest ever day - Wednesday February 17 - when visits to the portal surpassed the previous record of July 8 2020 when the stamp duty holiday was first announced.

Over 8.5m visits recorded on February 17, while the number of prospective buyers contacting agents in February so far is up by 22 per cent on this time last year. 

It also claims strong figures for its listings of overseas homes and commercial properties.

Rightmove’s property expert Tim Bannister says: “Despite all of the uncertainty right now, there are clear signs from buyers that they want to move home in the UK this year. 

“Our traffic levels are on a par with the mini-boom from last summer, and July’s busiest ever day last year has been replaced by a lockdown day in February. Now that we have some clarity on what the roadmap out of lockdown could look like we expect to see more people putting their home on the market. This should help open up more choice in the market to satisfy the strong buyer demand we’re seeing.”