The best time of year to buy?

[KGeeson]

With xmas approaching it started me thinking whether there is a better time of year to buy a property investment, and equally, when the rental market is stronger. Does anyone try and time the redevelopment of a property to coincide with a good time of year for rentals (ie. if you're aiming for the student market you would want to be ready when students are looking to secure property)? How do you find that different times of the year (summer holidays, xmas etc) affect how quickly houses move / rent?

 

[Le Seb]

They say winter is the best time, Jan is good as people are broke after Xmas, though I made my best deals end of Dec.
Certainly, June is the worse time, everybody wants to move before summer.

 

[Luke Masters]

Investors can usually pick up a good deal around Christmas in my experience but as always only if the seller is motived to get the property sold quickly. On previous experience the best outcome you could have from a property that needs to be redeveloped is try and pick it up below market value in the depths of winter, refurbish the property and get it ready to let/sell in Spring or Summer to maximise margins.

Of course this rule is not cast iron as there are motivated sellers all of the time just potentially not as many serious buyers which allows you to negotiate the price.

Would be keen to hear others thoughts on their experiences?