Thursday 24th August is the busiest moving day of the year, reveals the UK’s largest moving company, as literally hundreds of families choose to move house just before the Bank Holiday weekend.

The firm’s move monitor, tracks around 19,000 home moves each year, and pinpoints where the nation is moving to and from. This year, the monitor reveals that more people are moving to Perth than Preston, Plymouth or even Putney!

Pickfords’ research revealed down-under Perth as the most popular international city destination, with more people migrating there than any single UK city.

When it comes to moves in and around the UK, this year Nottingham is the most desired destination. Top of the city hotspots for the first time, Nottingham experienced more moves into and within the city than any other, knocking Glasgow to a number two position. Newcastle and Bristol are on the rise, whilst newcomers Bath and Reading came in at number 9 and number 10 respectively.

But overall it’s those Southerners that love nothing more than moving house, 40% of all Pickfords’ moves were within or to the South.

Nigel Lewis, editor of Location, Location, Location magazine said: "It’s refreshing to see that despite all the newspaper headlines about Nottingham’s crime problems people have been able to see past this and appreciate the city’s attractions – including a fast-regenerating centre and the pleasant, almost rustic suburbs around its university."

"Its popularity also has a lot to do with house prices, which are significantly lower in Nottingham than in other cities in the region".

Regional Movers and Shakers

• South East: Most active moving region in the UK experienced a quarter of all UK moves (25%). 61% of all movers stay in the region, while 22% of people moving to a new region chose the South East
• South West: Experienced the largest number of moves into the region from other areas of the UK, with just over 50% of movers arriving from outside the South West
• Scotland: Top of the pops for people staying put. Of those movers within the region, nearly two thirds (65%) remained in Scotland
• North West: The only region to experience a significant increase in moving activity over the past year, with 22.5% more moves than 2005. Of all the region’s moves, 59% were into the North West from other parts of the UK
• London: Only accounted for 7.5% of total moving activity. Almost twice as many movers left the capital than moved in from other areas, meaning London suffered the highest net loss of all regions

Pickfords’ spokesperson Lyndsey Daykin isn’t surprised that the August bank holiday is such a popular time to move. "We see a huge surge in house moves during the month of August. Our customers are keen to make the most of the extra day off work; the good weather and the fact children are still off school, so come Autumn they are settled in a new home," she said.

International Moving Picture

The move monitor has also revealed that more people are moving abroad than ever before. A third (33%) of those surveyed are heading overseas – an increase of 11.5% on last year.

The survey shows that the most popular place for Britons to relocate is Australia with just under a third of overseas home movers heading down under, an increase of 14% from last year. Almost all of the top ten saw in increase in numbers moving there since last year, with Dubai experiencing a massive 31% increase, due to the booming property market.

Lyndsey Daykin said, "The monitor revealed that whilst Australia remains the firm relocation favourite, Pickfords relocated people further a field than ever before. This year we moved twice as many people to Bulgaria as last year, and almost as many people to United Arab Emirates as to France, which shows just how the international property market is changing."