Every year, around the second week of July, the same thing happens. Agents tell vendors to wait until September. Buyers assume nothing interesting will come up before then. Both sides essentially agree to take the summer off, and the market obliges by going quiet.

The problem is that this is largely self-fulfilling, and the people who benefit from ignoring it are the ones who pay attention.

Here is what actually happens in the prime London market in July and August. Transaction volumes do fall – that part is true. But the composition of what remains changes in an interesting way. The vendors who list in summer are, almost by definition, motivated. They are not testing the market or seeing what happens. They have a reason to sell and they want to get on with it. The properties that come to market in August tend to be the ones worth looking at.

The buyer pool thins out too, which sounds like a problem but is often the opposite. Serious buyers – the ones who have done their research, know what they want and are ready to move – do not stop looking because it is July. They just find themselves with less competition. The people who disappeared for the summer were probably not going to beat them to anything anyway.

There is also the question of what happens to asking prices. Vendors who list in summer know they are listing into a quieter market. The ones who are genuinely motivated price accordingly. The discount between asking and achieved in July and August is not dramatically different from the rest of the year in prime central London – but the negotiating dynamic often is.

None of this means that September is not a good time to buy or sell. It is. The autumn market in prime London is real and it matters. But the idea that nothing interesting happens between now and then is a myth that serves nobody – except, perhaps, the buyer who keeps looking while everyone else heads to the airport.

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