October brought the second Friday the 13th of this year, and to mark the occasion Registers of Scotland (RoS) carried out some research to see whether the date affects people’s property buying habits at all.

The results of the analysis suggested a degree of superstition amongst home buyers, with only 524 properties changing hands on the last Friday the 13th (in January 2017), compared to 1,321 changing hands on the equivalent Friday in 2016 (15th).

The last Friday the 13th before that was May 2016, when only 530 residential properties changed hands compared with 1,076 on the equivalent Friday 2017 (12th May 2016). On the Friday before (6th May 2016) 972 properties changed hands, with 1,110 house moves taking place on Friday, 20th May 2016.

“We can’t definitively say that people are superstitious about moving house on Friday 13th,” commented RoS’ Operations Director and Accountable Officer, Janet Egdell. “However, our data does indicate that, while people overwhelmingly prefer to move house on a Friday compared with any other day in the week, there is a significant drop in the number of people doing so where this lands on the 13th day in the month.”

“Data collected over a longer period of time shows that, from 1st April 2003 to 31st August 2017, an average of 1,163 people moved house on Fridays, with the exception of Fridays that happened to be the 13th day in the month, when only half as many (519 on average) house moves took place,” she said.

“It looks as though Friday 13th is a less popular Friday to move than the others in the year,” she added. “We look forward to seeing over the next few weeks whether this trend continues in the month of Halloween.”

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