Relocation Consumer Barometer

People in more than 2.48 million English, Welsh and Scottish households moved home in 2009. In 2010 the figure so far is down by 13% on the same period last year, but the volume of house moves has remained stable since the previous report. Although this market shrank in 2009, it's still sizeable and is predicted to recover to 2007 levels in the next 12-24 months.   

These home movers represent a vital opportunity for marketers, as they spend five times more in the first six months of moving than in the following five years, particularly on home and garden furnishings and white goods. Moving house is also a major trigger for switching home-oriented products and services, such as utilities, and for storage, redirection and removal services.

This March 2010 report from Royal Mail contains extensive data for every area in the UK on this target audience, and key findings include:

• House moves are most frequent in higher socio-economic groups.

• There is a clear drift of households moving away from the South towards the North Midlands, the North West, Devon, North Wales and parts of Scotland.

• The most active home mover markets include London (WC and EC), Taunton, Dorchester, Tonbridge, Kirkwall, Berwick upon Tweed and Kingston upon Thames.

• Middlesex, London, Surrey, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire are the counties with the highest proportion of people moving out.

To find out how your business can benefit from using this data, contact one of our data experts.