Rightmove expects Boxing Day bounce after Budget uncertainty slows second half of 2025
Average asking prices for homes coming to market fell by 1.8% in December, a drop of £6,695, according to property listing platform Rightmove.
The typical seasonal decline is smaller, with the portal reporting that this year’s fall exceeded the 10-year December average slide of 1.4%. As a result, 2025 is set to close with new seller asking prices 0.6% – or £2,059 – below the level recorded a year earlier.
Price movements have varied across regions, with the North West of England seeing the strongest annual growth at 2.6%, values in London broadly unchanged, and the South West posting the sharpest decline at 2.7%.
Rightmove said that uncertainty linked to the Chancellor’s Budget added to the normal year-end slowdown in both pricing and activity, and contributed to a weaker second half of 2025 than the first.
Boxing Day bounce expected
Rightmove expects a larger than usual Boxing Day uplift in traffic and new listings as households who delayed decisions during the Budget period re-enter the market.
The platform’s survey of more than 10,000 potential movers found that almost one in five respondents had postponed their plans until after the Budget outcome. The firm said this underlined the impact of the pre-Budget hiatus and suggested that many of these would-be movers may respond to the pipeline of listings held back for launch on or soon after Boxing Day.
Rightmove has already seen early signs of a post-Budget pick-up in some parts of the market, although the typical festive lull is masking a broader rebound for now. In London’s top-end segment, which had been most affected by speculation over tax changes, the number of new sellers listing homes rose by 24% in the week after the Budget compared with the week before.
“Lower price growth supported buyer affordability and drove activity in the first half of the year, even after the April stamp duty deadline in England,” said Colleen Babcock (pictured right), property expert at Rightmove. “In the second half of 2025, uncertainty caused by rumours of property tax changes in November’s Budget swirled, some from as early as August. This had an impact on pricing and activity, as sellers tried to entice nervous buyers.
“The market will soon benefit from the traditional boost in home-moving activity from Boxing Day. Rightmove’s Boxing Day Bounce is an annual event where we see many begin or resume their plans to move after the distraction of Christmas. With the turkey and trimmings barely off the table, each year we see people heading straight to Rightmove to browse the fresh listings for sale and imagine how different next Christmas could look.”
First half stronger than second
Rightmove’s figures underline the divergence between the first and second halves of 2025, with early Budget speculation weighing on sentiment and transaction levels later in the year.
New listings in the first six months of 2025 were 9% higher than in the same period of 2024. In contrast, new sellers coming to market in the second half of 2025 were 4% lower than a year earlier.
Buyer activity followed a similar pattern. Demand in the first half of 2025 was 3% above 2024 levels but dropped to 6% below last year’s figure in the second half.
Even so, agreed sales over the full year are 3% higher than in 2024. Rightmove also noted that the closing months of 2025 are being compared with a relatively strong end to 2024, when some buyers accelerated purchases ahead of the April stamp duty rise in England, exaggerating the year-on-year slowdown in recent months.
Outlook: 2% asking price rise in 2026
Rightmove expects average new seller asking prices to increase by 2% in 2026. The portal anticipates that next year’s activity will resemble the first half of 2025 more than the weaker second half, with buyer choice remaining broad and affordability expected to improve.
Its mortgage tracker shows that the average two-year fixed rate is now 4.33%, compared with 5.08% at the same point last year. The company said that more flexible lending criteria, continued wage growth ahead of inflation and the price declines seen in 2025 should all help support borrowers’ purchasing power in 2026.
“With market conditions supporting higher levels of activity , and a hopefully more certain economic environment, we forecast a better year for price growth in 2026 with a strong rebound in activity to kick start the year,” Babcock said.
“However, with buyer choice remaining high, sellers will still need to come to the market at tempting prices to attract attention and do all that they can to ensure that their property is presented as well as possible.
“A more stable 2026 would be good for buyer confidence, which in turn would further boost activity levels, leading to a modest price increase, property expert at Rightmove.”
For intermediaries, the combination of modest price growth, steady wage increases and easing rates could translate into more active purchase pipelines in 2026, provided borrowers remain confident about the wider economic backdrop.
Agent challenges Rightmove view
North London estate agent Jeremy Leaf said his firm’s experience did not fully align with Rightmove’s interpretation of the post-Budget market. “Perhaps that’s because the UK’s largest property portal measures asking or aspirational prices rather than values,” he said.
“On the ground, we’ve noticed many buyers and sellers have been sitting on their hands, fearing the worst from the Chancellor, before deciding whether to act. The damp squib of a Budget has heartened those in the more price-sensitive £500,000 to £1 million bracket who are breathing a sigh of relief. Those in and around the ‘mansion tax’ levels are generally proving more cautious and not contemplating moves unless circumstances dictate – or at least further details of charging emerge.
“As a result, we expect a two-tier market to develop in the early New Year with demand gradually increasing for smaller homes particularly if base rate is reduced sooner rather than later.”
Leaf, however, agreed that Boxing Day generates a lot of enquiries, albeit a significant proportion of those are of relatively poor quality. “We prefer to judge how the next quarter at least is likely to work out when we’ve had a chance to assess the motivation of the fresh crop of buyers – as well as the sellers,” he said. “Values will be determined by affordability and the amount of appropriately priced stock in the most sought-after ranges.”
For mortgage brokers, the contrasting perspectives between portal data and agents’ on-the-ground experience may reinforce the need for granular, local insight when advising clients on timing, pricing and product selection in early 2026.
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