Estate agents miss 94% of evening calls. Rightmove says that is when buyers are looking.

The findings

• Symptom — 94.1% of calls to UK sales and lettings agencies between 6 pm and 9 pm go unanswered. 4.1% reach a person.
• Cause — buyers look in the evening. Rightmove's busiest minute is 8.48 pm on a Wednesday; 8 to 9 pm is the busiest hour of every day. Offices close at six.
• Detection — a study rang 3,047 agency numbers on weekday evenings, May to July 2026, until each line gave up. Rightmove's traffic data supplies the when.
• Fix — a phone that does not go home. Somebody, or something, that answers at 8.48 pm, asks the viewing questions and puts it in the diary. I make one; a rota or a human out-of-hours service are the other two.
• Status — InStep AI plan to repeat the study. Until then the number to beat is 94.1%.

When buyers look

Rightmove's data says the nation's busiest home-hunting minute is 8.48 pm on a Wednesday, and 8 to 9 pm is the busiest hour of every day. Miles Shipside, at Rightmove, explained why:

A few years back the busiest time of day was lunchtime but as mobile usage increased this has changed to property lovers visiting us every evening.

Miles Shipside, Rightmove, 2019

That figure is from 2019 and it holds, because the thing underneath it does not move. The people who can afford a house are at work from nine to six. Looking for one is what they do when they get in, phone in hand. Lunchtime was the peak when it needed a desk. The phone moved it to the sofa, and nothing has moved it back.

So at 8.48 pm a buyer requests details, sees your number, rings.

What happens when they ring

InStep AI took 3,169 UK branch records, deduplicated them to 3,047 unique telephone numbers, and rang every one on weekday evenings between May and July this year, each call left to ring until the receiving line ended it.

Between 6 pm and 9 pm, 94.1% went unanswered.

Across the whole sample, 93.8% reached nobody and 4.1% were answered by a person. The rest hit a machine or a dead number; a voice AI was 0.7% of all calls.

Size did not save anyone: mid-sized agencies 96% unanswered, independents 93.6%, the largest networks 92.2%.

What I ruled out

Lazy agents. No. The study's own co-founder refused that reading, with every commercial reason to take it:

Most offices close at six because that's when the working day ends. What the data shows is a structural gap between when the industry is open and when its customers are free to call.

Reid Cockrell, InStep AI, August 2026

"We ring them back first thing." First thing is twelve hours after 8.48 pm. Rightmove mystery-shopped 213 agents in 2014: 61% replied within 24 hours, 1 in 10 by both phone and email within the hour. YouGov asked 1,000 sellers for Zoopla in November 2025: 26% expect a reply within the hour, 67% within four.

"It's a vendor's study." It is. InStep AI sells an AI assistant to estate agents, and so do I, so read both of us with that in mind. I have a rule about vendor numbers, mine included: the method or nothing. I once built a whole benchmark site under a different name so nobody had to take my word for a figure. This one passes the rule. The method is stated in full, the sample is large, and the report names its own limitations and its own commercial interest.

"They'll just phone back in office hours." One agent put it under the study itself: "If you've a Sole Agency, they'll simply have to phone back in office hours. Simples." True, for the buyer who wants your listing and only yours. The applicant with a mortgage in principle, ringing four agents on a Wednesday night, registers with whichever one picks up. From their side, on a forum this February:

I was surprised by the number of estate agents who didn't bother contacting me back to arrange a viewing, even after multiple phone calls by me in some cases. [...] This is despite being chain free [...] and ready to move ASAP. [...] I'd say that at least half of the ones I contacted were disinterested though.

Buyer, MoneySavingExpert forum, February 2026

Chain free. Ready to move. Half the agents lost them, and not one of those agents will ever know.

The fix

The fix is a phone that does not go home. Three ways to get one:

1. A rota. Costs a person an evening, every evening, and the study found no size of agency that was answering.
2. A human out-of-hours service. Most answer and take a message. The message is in your inbox at 9 am, next to the Rightmove leads. You are back to twelve hours.
3. A receptionist that books the viewing at 8.48 pm. This is what I make, so here is exactly what mine does for an agency and nothing more.

At 8.48 pm Sarah answers the branch number. She asks the three viewing questions: which property, cash buyer or mortgage in principle, is there a property to sell. She books the viewing into the branch diary at a real slot, including Saturday. The confirmation goes by text, the applicant is on your list with what they said, and your negotiator arrives to a qualified viewing already in the book.

The limits, plainly. She does not negotiate an offer, and she does not give anything that sounds like legal advice; both go to a person in the morning, with the notes. The three viewing questions and the Saturday hours are there from day one for an estate agency; the diary is yours to keep in her.

Status

InStep AI say they will run the study again. The number to beat is 94.1%. The number to aim at is the one sellers set: a reply within the hour, at 8.48 pm, on a Wednesday.

Ring your own branch at 8 pm. Then at 8.48 pm ring 07782 603 274 and ask her what she does at that hour for an estate agent. Compare the two calls.