UK reward metrics · Time Off & Family

How do UK organisations handle annual leave buy/sell availability?

Source lumi HRBase 255 organisationsFieldwork 2026 H1

48.6%No

48.6% of organisations in the lumi HR community answered “No” on annual leave buy/sell availability (base: 255 UK organisations, 2026 H1).

Figures describe organisations in the lumi HR community, not a random sample of UK employers.

How UK organisations answered

Yes - both buy and sell options are av 11.4% Yes - buy only 38% Yes - sell only 2% No 48.6%
Annual leave buy/sell availability (base: 255 organisations, 2026 H1). Percentages percentages may not sum to 100 because of rounding.
Annual leave buy/sell availability: share of organisations by answer
AnswerShare of organisations
Yes - both buy and sell options are availablerare11.4%
Yes - buy onlyalternative38%
Yes - sell onlyrare2%
Nocommon48.6%

Common, alternative and rare describe how each answer sits against the community: the most chosen answer is common; an answer chosen by fewer than one in five organisations is rare.

Definition

Whether employees can buy extra annual leave, sell unused days, both, or neither. See the methodology for how the base is built, how not-applicable answers are handled, the public floor, and which organisations are excluded.

For context, Drewberry UK Employee Benefits Benchmarking Report 2026 reports 44.1% (base: UK employers all sizes/sectors, n=626 HR/finance professionals).

Cite this figure
Source: lumi HR, UK Reward Metrics, September 2026, lumihr.co.uk/metrics/annual-leave-buy-sell-availability
Last updated 19 September 2026 · Data licence: CC BY 4.0 for the figures in the CSV download.

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