Find it first on a Friday afternoon: the busiest time for new properties added instantly – but quietest for traffic

New data from Rightmove reveals that Friday at 4pm is the most popular time for agents to instantly upload new resale and rental properties to the site

Despite the new findings, Friday afternoons are one of the quietest times for people home-hunting on the site

The peak time for people searching and sending enquiries is Tuesdays at 9pm as the increasing popularity of mobile has led to more people browsing on smartphones and tablets at home

We’ve released the data to help give people a steer on the time they are most likely to find new properties to buy or rent

New site data from the UK’s busiest property website Rightmove shows a check for new properties on a Friday afternoon could mean people have more chance of finding their dream home.

Over a quarter of all properties are now added by agents instantly to Rightmove, including those that use the new instant upload service (Rightmove’s Real-time Data Feed).  Those not yet using the instant service also upload more properties towards the end of the week.

Currently the busiest time for searches and sending enquiries is Tuesday at 9pm as more people use mobile devices to look for property, with Fridays proving the least popular.

Searching on mobile has increased by almost 50% in the past year with smartphone and tablet browsing now making up over half of all property detail views on Rightmove.  Generally in August enquiries by phone and email from Rightmove agents were up 13% year on year, and those sent via a mobile device were up 45%.

Those looking for a rental property should also keep an eye out on Wednesdays at 5pm, which is the peak time for letting properties to be added instantly.

Head of Communications at Rightmove Matthew James comments on the trends:

“We have around 1.6million people visiting Rightmove every day but Friday afternoons have always been a quieter time, perhaps because people are distracted by weekend plans instead. This new data shows that a quick look on a Friday afternoon could be fruitful and could mean you find a new property first – just in time to get a viewing sorted for the weekend.

“We now send one million property alerts out to home-hunters every day, and the majority now choose to receive them instantly.  It means that as browsing increasingly shifts to mobile you can find out about a new relevant property on the go and at various times of the day so you’re more likely to be able to ring agents during working hours to set up viewings.  We don’t imagine our peaks will change that much based on this new advice, but that means those who do take a look on a Friday might have a competitive edge over another home-hunter!”

Real-time Data Feed (RTDF), is the new service from Rightmove where properties can be automatically uploaded in minutes.  A quarter of all properties uploaded to Rightmove are now visible on the website in 30 minutes or less and, courtesy of Rightmove’s new Instant Alert services, they are emailed to home-hunters’ inboxes in 90 minutes or less. To be at the front of the queue when a property hits Rightmove, sign up to instant alerts and find it first.