Rightmove had 127 million visits last month (January), up 21 million (or 20 percent) on the same month last year and surpassing the previous record of 118 million set in August 2015.

Email and phone enquiries hit over 4.9 million for the first time ever, a 15 per cent increase on last January, and higher than July’s previous record of 4.8 million.

The portal claims that collectively the nation spent the equivalent of over 2,000 years browsing Rightmove in January alone, and the busiest day was Tuesday January 26 with 4.7 million visits.

Page views for the month hit a new record of 1.7 billion, meaning people looked through over one million more pages of property than in January 2015.

“While January is usually a very busy month for home-hunting, the scale of these records shows just how habitual Rightmove has become when people are starting their property search” according to Rightmove director Miles Shipside.

In a subtle comment about the now-fragmented portal landscape, Shipside continues: “As Rightmove is the only place where people can search over one million properties for sale and to rent, it’s clear that buyers, renters, sellers and landlords are all using us to search the whole market.”