Friday the 13th - lucky for some
Would you be put off from moving house on Friday the 13th?
A fear of the number 13 is called triskaidekaphobia and if you suffer from it you’re not the only one.
Nyree Applegarth, a partner at Higgs & Sons solicitors near Birmingham says that roughly 80% of her firm’s clients would prefer not to complete a house sale/purchase on Friday 13th, and according to a survey by the Guardian, one in five adults would avoid exchanging on a new property on the date.
However, there are advantages to being a bit less superstitious.
Just like hotels that skip number 13, and air lines that miss out row number 13, house builders could save money with a bit of creative reimagining of numbers.
Incredibly, house owners who live at number 13 receive on average £6,511 or 3% less than other homes.
In fact, during the last ten years, 144,789 properties at number 13 were sold. When you compare that to 239,716 number 12s, and 222,127 number 14s it’s clear there’s bargains available – so long as you don’t worry about the resale value!
In a survey of 2,017 people by comparison site, gocompare.com, 14% said that they would not buy a house or flat if it was number 13 and 11% would try to avoid all association with the number 13.
This means that choosing to move on Friday the 13th actually could be lucky for some– by picking a quiet day you can avoid the rush and even get a deal on your removal van.
Clockwork Removals says its teams regularly come across customers who request a different moving date as soon as they realise they’re moving on the 13th, and Bishop’s Move has found the unlucky date affecting them – they’ve got unusually low bookings on Friday 13th this year.
Friday the 13th seems to actually be the perfect day to try something new – and we think trying new estate agent software falls into that category!
