The Truth about Boxing Day Property Launches

The truth about Boxing Day property launches: Don’t let corporate agencies bury your home in a sea of new listings. 

You must launch on Boxing Day it’s the biggest spike of the year!

Here is what you won’t be told should you ask for further details on this, the Boxing day frenzy is engineered, overcrowded and rarely designed with your best outcome in mind. 

Every year as the Christmas adverts reach fever pitch many agencies start to roll out the same predictable line in order to commit your home to them ahead of the new year.

1. Yes Boxing Day sees a spike in online activity to property websites. 

Agencies will talk about this like it is gospel but in reality December as a month on average sees the lowest levels of visits to property websites of every month in the year while the vast majority of people search websites for other very obvious reasons. 

In truth Boxing Day is big because December as a whole is tiny. People are distracted, exhausted, travelling, shopping, celebrating and generally dealing with everything but property searches. So of course traffic rises exponentially on Boxing Day it is the first calm moment many people have achieved in almost a month to sit for a minute and look at their phone. 

Are they browsing? Yes. Serious Buyer intent? Unlikely. 

Most prospective sellers and buyers will want to spend the precious little time one gets over Christmas and New Year with their loved ones or simply relaxing. For most sellers the thought of someone viewing their house which is upside down and not exactly in show home presentation mode fills them with dread. 

Likewise, are buyers so desperate to see the houses that they will travel through the heaviest traffic imaginable on Boxing day to view a house they can see after work a week from now or a weekend in January when there’s nothing or no one else in the diary for them. The short answer is no. 

Add to this; is a buyer likely to make a decision to buy the first house they see, the day after they decide to move? Would you? 

2. Boxing Day is the Noisiest, most crowded launch day of the year. 

This is the part that agencies will fail to point out to you. 

You will be one of hundreds of properties launched on the same day. 

Your home, unique, valuable and deserving of its own spotlight gets thrown into a chaotic carrousel of listings just one of hundreds a potential buyer has to scroll through to find what they want:

• Too many new properties competing for the same eyeballs = very little limelight for individual properties, not everyone’s home can get all the shine. 
• Buyers become fatigued as they scroll through endless Thumbnail images 
• Your home quickly becomes buried 
• There is no tailored promotion because the few agencies that are open have skeleton staff thus very little proactive action. 

The result is quantity over quality and within a few days your home becomes one of hundreds of homes launched in 2025 a date for all to see on every listing and very swiftly overtaken by the next new listings dated 2026 and offering something new to the audience. 

3. A 2026 launch allows you space focus and the attention of real buyers who are active in their search

A new year launch, properly planned, positioned and marketed gives your home the spotlight it deserves. Any buyer with alerts set up on their preferred property portals will see in full scope the new home that comes to the market on another Wednesday in January but may miss the one that suits them among the 32 alerts they get on Boxing Day. 

In Early 2026:

• Buyers return with real motivation and action they’re available to view right away and more importantly they are eager to do so.
• New Jobs are sought, relocations are planned, pay cycles are renewed and life decisions kick in.
• Competition is significantly lower.
• Engagement is significantly higher and more meaningful.
• Marketing teams (and agents!) are available and focussed. 

It’s the difference between launching into noise and launching into opportunity. 

4. Agencies push Boxing Day for their targets not your success 

Let’s call it what it is:

A boxing day launch is designed to give agencies your mandate to sell their home and tie you into a contract this year so that they can have you tied in well into 2026. The hope is you will be commission for them down the road and help them to hit their 2026 targets provided you don’t get fed up with them first.

December sign ups are great for KPI statistics to end the year and it allows them to use a flood of property to the market at Boxing Day to claim they are the leading agency in an area. Your outcome? An afterthought.

5. This is exactly where Bunting & Bunting are different

At Bunting & Bunting we don’t subscribe to blanket strategies or corporate gimmicks. We don’t recommend Boxing Day launches because “that’s what everyone does”. Critically we don’t push our clients into rushed decisions to fulfil imaginary targets because our clients are not KPIs they are people and every one of them gets our fullest attention because that is what we would want when selling our own home. Unlike our competition we do not claim to have the most properties for sale in the area, because we don’t, but more pertinently we have more properties sold than we have for sale. 

Instead we focus on:

• Individual tailored advice based on your home, your timetable and your goals not a head office accountant’s
• Considered launch planning so your property stands out, not just one of many in a noisy launch
• Quality over quantity every single time, we say again we have more properties sold than for sale
• Strategic Marketing that gives your home the attention it deserves
• Clear honest guidance without a script, no pressure and critically no corporate waffle. 

Your home is unique

Your situation is unique

Your launch should be as well. 

Final Thought: Don’t let a corporate myth dictate your move

Your property deserves more than a rushed holiday season listing and a hope that someone scrolling between mince pies happens to click on it. 

Choose timing that works for you, not someone else’s targets

Choose advice that’s tailored, not templated. 

Choose a service that values your outcome, not a statistic. 

Choose Bunting & Bunting. 

We would love for you to and we’d be delighted to hear from you. 

Debbie and Ewen