Seasonal Selling: What Time Of Year Should You List A Property?

Spring, summer, autumn, winter – what is the best time of year to sell your property?

Some buyers and agents place a lot of emphasis on selling in the right season. While there are pros and cons to different times of the year, at the end of the day, much will depend on your individual property, reason for selling and the current state of the market.

With that being said, what factors favour each season if you’re looking to list a property?

Spring

Common wisdom has it that spring is the best time to sell. There tends to be more activity in the market during the spring months, with people coming out of winter hibernation and many buyers wishing to complete their home purchase before the end of the year. The flip side, of course, is more competition. Your property is likely to be one of many on the market and buyers will have more choice, so it’s vital yours stands out from the pack.

Many properties do look fantastic in spring, however, especially if your garden or outdoor area is a big selling point.

Summer

You may have been cautioned against listing in summer when people are wrapping up work and planning their holidays they may be too busy to look and thereafter or may be out of town. However, the start of the year can be a great time to sell, with built-up demand from the year before leading to strong open-home numbers.

Homes are often light, bright and appealing in the summer months, although ideally, you don’t want to be staging open homes in extreme heat - unless, of course, it lets you showcase how cool your home is inside. In particular, older houses can be cooler in summer, which can make them very appealing to buyers.

Autumn

Autumn is another popular season to buy and sell, especially as it’s probably the most pleasant time of year in Sydney weather-wise. It’s a time of year when many homes benefit from the sun being lower in the sky, which can result in lovely light in a property.

In autumn, many buyers have their New Year’s resolutions firmly in their sights and are organised and focused on their goal of home ownership. So between March and the June long weekend, a lot of serious buyers hit the market.

The downside is that a lot of people see autumn as a good time to sell so there can be oversupply at this time of year, although traditionally it’s not as popular with vendors as spring.

Winter

Many people will try to tell you that this is the worst time of the year to sell. But that’s not the case at all in Sydney. The idea that winter is a bad time to present properties at their best applies in other parts of the world where the season is darker and drearier.

Winter can actually be a good time to list a property. The widespread assumption is that there will be fewer buyers looking. However in our experience the actual number of buyers does not decline over winter. Buyer numbers are actually fairly consistent throughout the year. There are, however, fewer homes on the market in winter. So you can get a better pool of buyers competing for property. Selling at the tail end of winter can also mean beating the spring over-supply peak.

The only caveat is that older houses that are particularly cold in winter are often better shown at another time of year.

Are your property’s attributes season specific?

Ultimately, the best time of year to showcase your property will depend on its unique qualities. If your garden is one of its key features, then spring is probably a better time to sell than winter. Cool, dark homes are best shown in summer, while buyers will appreciate properties that have lots of light, even in the depths of winter.

The reality is that supply and demand will ultimately always be a bigger driver than any particular season.

If you’d like advice about when to buy or sell, get in touch with our expert team today.