Buy Nothing Day approaches whilst house sales skyrocket
New research from Benham and Reeves shows property sales have increased by over 300% at a time when people should be making a conscious effort to not make any purchases.
Buy Nothing Day was established by Canadian artist Ted Dave in 1992 to offer individuals the chance to detox from consumerism and to ‘tune into the impact we have on the environment through shopping’.
To give some context, research from Oxfam shows it is estimated that more than two tonnes of clothing are bought each minute in the UK – more than any other country in Europe – which produces nearly 50 tonnes of carbon emissions, the same as driving 162,000 miles in a car.
This year the event will be taking place on 29th November – the same day as Black Friday – with an aim to stop people from indulging in overconsumption.
However, new analysis of property transactional data by Bentham and Reeves – a London-based lettings and estate agent – shows a considerably higher number of homebuyers make, what is arguably the biggest purchase of their life, on Buy Nothing Day, granted the decision about when the transaction goes through is largely out of their hands.
The research outlines that within the last five years, an average of 2,470 property sales have been complete per day throughout the month of November. What’s more, experts found that on the 25th November 10,916 property sales have been completed over the last half decade.
This means that some 342% more homes complete on Buy Nothing Day versus the average daily completion total seen during the month of November.
Marc von Grundherr, director of Benham and Reeves, said: ‘The property purchasing process is a long and unpredictable one and, as a result, homebuyers really have no concrete idea as to when they will reach the finish line.
‘In some cases, they may be particularly unlucky and be subjected to the dreaded fall through, but otherwise it’s a case of sitting tight and waiting for each piece of the puzzle to fall into place.
‘Interestingly, this has seen a far higher number of homebuyers make what’s likely to be their biggest life purchase on Buy Nothing Day versus the rest of the month of November – albeit the decision to do so was largely out of their hands.’
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