This month’s Scotsman Property Podcast tackles two very different topics. First, Scotsman property editor Kirsty McLuckie speaks to mortgage specialist Sarah Cheetham, from UK debt charity StepChange.
In the second half, the podcast tackles another type of service designed to lessen stress, this time that surrounding moving house.
In the second half, the podcast tackles another type of service designed to lessen stress, this time that surrounding moving house.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Scotsman Property podcast. This time we're
00:08 going to be discussing two very different topics. First, we'll be seeking advice from
00:13 a mortgage debt specialist to ask what help is available to the many people who've struggled
00:18 to make payments in the last year or so. And then afterwards, we'll be going on to discuss
00:23 an innovative new service offered in Edinburgh for home movers designed to take the stress
00:28 out of the whole process. But first, I'd like to welcome Sarah Cheetham of Step Change Financial
00:35 Solutions. That's the UK's only charity-operated mortgage advice service. Welcome, Sarah, and
00:42 thank you for talking to us. Hi, Kirsty. Thank you for having me. Can I ask first, what kind
00:49 of mortgage difficulties have people been coming to you with? And has there been a marked
00:54 increase since interest rates rose? Yeah, thanks. What we've found is a marked increase
01:03 in people who are contacting us for debt advice who have got a mortgage and actually an increase
01:09 in those who have got a mortgage but also mortgage arrears. Across the UK from kind
01:15 of 2022 to 2023, there was a 2% increase in people contacting us who had mortgage arrears.
01:22 If we look at that for people living in Scotland, that was actually a 5% increase. And for people
01:29 in Scotland, back in 2022, mortgage arrears reported to Step Change for clients contacting
01:35 us was £31,000. But actually, that significantly increased to £1.1 million in 2023. So what
01:45 we're finding is that people are simply unable to afford their increase in mortgage payments
01:51 and falling into arrears. What we do tend to see though at Step Change is that people
01:58 will prioritise their housing costs first. So as a whole percentage, people contacting
02:05 us with arrears is maybe not as large as what you would think. But what we tend to find
02:09 is they will prioritise their housing payment and then fall behind with other household
02:13 costs, maybe need to use credit for things like their food expenses, maybe even having
02:19 to access a food bank. So really, that's some of the things that we've seen and definitely
02:25 has changed since the interest rates rose kind of from the back end of 2022.
02:31 Yeah. And what can people do if they're behind on their payments? I presume when they come
02:38 to you, it's not just that they're struggling with the next payment. It might be that from
02:42 your figure, it sounds like they're already seriously in arrears.
02:46 Yeah. I think the first thing people need to do, and I would stress the importance of
02:51 this is speaking to their lender. Now, what we find is that the lenders are there to help
02:57 and do want to help people who are struggling with their mortgage. And whilst we understand
03:03 that might seem like a daunting task to speak to somebody who you're about to say, I can't
03:07 make the payment, really, the lender needs to know what's going on. And there are lots
03:11 of strategies that the lender can put in place to help people who are struggling with their
03:16 mortgage payments, such as reducing payments and temporarily switching their mortgage to
03:22 interest only. Or for some clients, we're seeing that they actually extend the term
03:26 of their mortgage to bring down their payments. But also, if somebody is struggling with their
03:32 mortgage payment, I think they need to be thinking about whether they need debt advice
03:37 as well. You know, I'm thinking about is that problem wider than just their mortgage payment?
03:43 What we know at StepChange is that 50% of people wait over a year before they seek debt
03:49 advice. And 92% of people seeking debt advice wish they'd done it sooner.
03:56 Yeah. And is that so there is a resistance? Is it shame? Is it, you know, burying your
04:02 head in the sand and rather than dealing with the red letters?
04:07 Yeah, absolutely. Because yeah, I think it's a little bit of a little bit of everything.
04:11 I think people what we will typically see is that people people think that they've that
04:16 they're coping. So, you know, they might make their mortgage payment and then they might
04:21 pay their electricity this month, but then they'll miss their water or miss their council
04:25 tax. They may decide to start putting their food shop on a credit card. They may take
04:30 out lots of zero zero percent credit cards, do lots of balance transfers and opening up
04:36 new lines of credit. They may go, you know, to kind of payday loans and things like that.
04:44 And I think if anybody's looking at their their situation and thinking that's kind of
04:48 how I'm living, that might be an indicator that somebody needs that that debt advice.
04:53 And I guess there still is a huge stigma about debt. And that's something that we're certainly
04:59 trying to change at StepChange. Now, actually getting help a lot earlier sometimes means
05:05 that the problem doesn't magnify and then it can be a lot easier and a lot quicker to
05:10 resolve. So definitely would be speak to the lender and then look at somebody like StepChange
05:15 and just just to see whether or not there is a problem that we can help with.
05:19 If nothing else, I mean, having a plan in place, I'm thinking about the impact on people's
05:24 health and whether they're able to sleep at night. If things are spiraling out of control,
05:30 just getting a plan in place, no long no matter how long that might take or how daunting that
05:35 might be, it would really affect your help, your peace of mind.
05:40 Absolutely. And the people that have sought debt advice from us do say that they felt
05:47 relief after going through the debt advice process, that they had a plan. And actually,
05:52 when we've looked at clients who've been through our service in the three, six and nine months
05:56 after seeking debt advice, we have seen a positive impact in their mental health. And
06:01 so, yeah, definitely, definitely. And we're trained advisors, our debt advice service
06:08 is free, it's confidential. So there's no stigma in speaking to somebody at StepChange.
06:13 And we have a full debt advice journey online that means people can access debt advice without
06:18 even needing to speak to somebody. So if anybody is worried about that stigma, I think that
06:23 that really helps. Yeah. In terms of the support that people can get.
06:28 How can you help them? Is it all about planning? And what is the initial process? And how long
06:35 are you usually involved? Yeah. And so we can help in a few different
06:42 ways. I mean, on StepChange.org, our website, we have got lots of really great information.
06:49 And we've got our homeowner hub. So we have designed that purposely because of what we're
06:54 seeing in the mortgage industry at the minute. Lots of really great information and help
06:59 for anybody who is a homeowner. From within the homeowner pages on the website, we can
07:06 take direct referrals from clients who might be looking for our help on obtaining a new
07:11 mortgage product. Or if they're over the age of 55, and are wanting to use the equity in
07:17 their home to maybe repay their existing mortgage, home improvements, help repay some of the
07:24 unsecured debts, that type of thing. And they can go through the homeowner hub and come
07:28 directly into my team within StepChange Financial Solutions.
07:32 And for somebody seeking debt advice, again, that can all be done via our website. Typically,
07:38 what will happen when somebody goes through the debt advice journey is we start by taking
07:44 a very detailed budget, looking at all of their income, all of their outgoings, and
07:49 really looking at how much money is left over to pay towards the debts. And then dependent
07:54 on that client's circumstances, we would recommend a debt solution. So how long we're involved
07:59 with the client really depends on what they need. It might be that we have minimal interaction
08:05 with that client because they're just looking on our website. It could be that we sell them
08:08 a mortgage product, and it would be at the point that that product completed. Or for
08:13 somebody who may say take up a debt management plan with us, or for those in Scotland, a
08:19 debt arrangement scheme. They would be with StepChange until they'd repaid their debt
08:24 and that debt solution ended.
08:26 I see. And when you're talking about the mortgage products that you can offer, are you talking
08:33 about things like lifetime mortgages, equity release programs, so that people can stay
08:39 in their own home rather than having their house repossessed?
08:44 Yeah, absolutely. We look at all of those products, as well as your traditional mortgages
08:51 for first time buyers or kind of move in house, resizing that type of thing, remortgaging.
08:58 But we do have a lot of clients coming directly into financial solutions where their number
09:04 one objective really is to stay in their home. If you think equity release is available to
09:09 people over the age of 55, these are people who've had their children in the home, they've
09:17 watched their grandchildren in the home, and really at that stage of life are wanting to
09:21 retain the family property as much as possible. And rather than kind of sitting on the equity
09:28 with the making the equity really, they're making the equity work for them really. And
09:35 I've really expressed great, great, I guess, gratitude to us for being able to help them
09:41 with that solution when they thought that they there was no other way out apart from
09:45 having to sell their home and the fact that they've been able to release some of the equity,
09:50 and say to repay debts or more, more commonly, we're starting to see people just wanting
09:55 to pay down their existing mortgage with the equity in their home as well.
10:01 Yeah, and is it the case really that that sort of lifetime mortgage, the equity release,
10:07 it is for older people, but do you encourage them to sort of include their family in their
10:13 decisions? Because I know there have been cases where, you know, children are expected
10:17 to inherit and then obviously the money isn't there when when a relative passes away or
10:24 moves out. So do you encourage people to keep their family in the loop and be part of the
10:30 decision?
10:31 Yeah, absolutely, Kirsty, that the family being included in the discussions about equity
10:36 release are so very important. And it's one that we actively encourage at StepChange and
10:41 actually welcome if family members join the cause or part of those discussions. And as
10:47 you say, you know, most people expect to inherit something from from their family members.
10:53 And definitely we need to we need to make sure that that conversation has been had.
10:57 So we actively encourage it.
11:01 Is there any circumstance where you advise somebody to simply hand the keys back to the
11:06 lender and walk away? Are there circumstances where, you know, the problem that there's
11:12 very little equity in the house, there's no hope of decreasing expenses or increasing
11:17 income that actually the best advice is to repossess?
11:26 That would be in, I guess, the absolute last resort scenario for anybody, I think, for
11:34 us to recommend somebody does that, but also for a lender to look at repossession, it isn't
11:38 the absolute last resort. I think that we do have to be realistic. There may be times
11:46 when the advice is to sell and to downsize because the property is just not sustainable.
11:54 But certainly we would look with a client, we would look detailed at their income and
11:57 expenditure opportunities to say, maximize their income opportunities to reduce their
12:02 spending before we would ever really recommend that somebody just needed to walk away from
12:09 the property. It wouldn't be in most people's best interest to just hand the keys back as
12:14 such.
12:15 Yeah. And finally, on a more positive note, there's obviously lending rates are now decreasing.
12:24 They seem to be doing it very tiny, in very tiny increments. But do you think, can you
12:31 see that the situation will ease and over the next couple of years, we might be getting
12:35 fewer people in financial difficulty with their mortgages?
12:40 I think if we look over the next few years, then possibly, I think it's going to be a
12:51 steady improvement if I'm honest. We have seen the interest rates drop, but they're
12:57 still considerably higher than the 2% we were seeing before October. And I think everybody
13:02 that I speak to in the mortgage market is not expecting that we would return to those
13:06 levels anytime soon. And I think what we will end up finding is that the market isn't probably
13:12 going to stabilize and that consumers will be maybe a bit more accepting that we're looking
13:17 at, you know, in between the 3% and 4% region for mortgages. I think everything that I've
13:23 seen is suggesting that it will be maybe even beyond 2025 before we start to look at getting
13:28 down to some of those levels. So I think we're still in for a really difficult couple of
13:33 years. And I guess if we look at step change on Christmas Day in '23, we had 1000 people
13:42 who accessed our debt advice service online. And that's a 43% increase on what we'd seen
13:49 in '22. And I guess that just goes to show, you know, that it is really prevalent at the
13:56 forefront of people's minds for people to be accessing debt advice on Christmas Day.
14:01 A third of the clients coming to us are in a negative budget. A third of people are in
14:07 arrears with their council tax and almost half are in arrears with dual fuel. So even
14:13 if mortgage stabilizes, I think the cost of living crisis is still really prevalent. The
14:20 average surplus for people contacting us now is only £7. So that's all they've got left
14:26 after they've taken into account all of their household spending. It leaves very little
14:32 for any emergency or for any unplanned increase. And that's reduced by kind of £33 in the
14:40 last year. So it really is quite a steep, steep decline. So I would say 2024/25, we're
14:47 probably still going to be expecting a lot of people who are going to need debt advice,
14:52 certainly.
14:53 Thanks. And the advice is to speak to a professional and help share the load, I suppose. Thanks
14:59 so much for talking to us, Sarah. That's been really great.
15:03 Thank you, Kirsty.
15:04 We're now going to move on to talking about how the selling and moving process can be
15:10 improved. It's well documented that moving house is one of the most stressful life events.
15:15 And many of us would gladly hand over the responsibility for legal paperwork, bidding,
15:21 clearing the house and removing your belongings to the next place. I actually can't think
15:25 of a single person who enjoys the whole shebang. But my next guests are professionals who are
15:32 planning on making it less stressful. Amy Howard is a property consultant with Edinburgh
15:38 Solicitors and Estate Agency Nielsen's and Zoe Berry is the owner of Life Edit Home Organisation.
15:46 Welcome both.
15:47 Thanks, Kirsty. It's lovely to be here.
15:50 Hi, Kirsty.
15:51 Hi, Amy. I'll come to you first. I understand you two have teamed up along with a third
16:00 business to offer an all in one package. Can you explain a bit more about how that came
16:06 about?
16:07 Yes, absolutely. Zoe and I have joined forces with Joe Munro of Broughton's Removal and
16:13 Storage, a long established Edinburgh business. And we've joined together to try and offer
16:18 a stress free and simplified moving house package. It's aimed at optimising the sale
16:26 potential of a property, but also making the moving process as straightforward as possible.
16:31 And Joe and I actually both met Zoe through using her home organisation services ourselves,
16:38 got chatting about our jobs and how decluttering and staging is an intrinsic part of the selling
16:43 process these days. And then when Zoe saw the storage facilities that Broughton's have
16:49 available, she got quite excited and we all decided we could work together, put heads
16:54 together to see what we could come up with.
16:56 Yeah. And so Zoe, could you explain a little bit more about your role in, you're calling
17:02 it the ultimate home move package, is that right?
17:05 Yes.
17:06 Because I think possibly that home organisation might be the one aspect of it that people
17:12 know less about. So would you want to explain that?
17:15 Yeah, absolutely. So anybody who's sold a property before will know that the way we
17:19 live in our houses, especially if you've got a busy house with family in it, pets, that
17:24 kind of thing, is really different from how we want our home to look when we're putting
17:28 it on the market. And so what we do in the ultimate home move package is we do staging,
17:36 home staging for sale, which is something which is really, really big across in the
17:41 US. And I think it's becoming pretty standard here as well. We're always a little bit behind
17:47 over here. But it's about making your house look as interesting and desirable to buyers
17:55 as possible. So we basically help clients achieve that.
18:00 You will go in and do you remove furniture? Do you add furniture? Do you clear things
18:06 out? What exactly do you or all of those things?
18:09 Yes. I mean, it depends from client to client, really. But we don't work with unfurnished
18:16 properties. We usually work with clients who are living in their house. And so we'll go
18:22 in with a kind of buyer's eye and look at each room and work out what they need to do
18:28 to make it look as interesting a possibility for buyers. So we'll move rooms around. We'll
18:35 give rooms purpose. Sometimes people say, well, this is just a dumping ground room.
18:41 But actually, it could be a really great spare room or office. So we'll change the function
18:45 of rooms. We'll take furniture away and make it so that buyers come in and are seeing the
18:52 possibility and the size of rooms rather than be distracted by the sellers kind of personal
19:00 items that are out on show. So we do a bit of depersonalizing as well.
19:06 Yes. Amy, that's just one stage, isn't it? I believe there are 10 steps to this package.
19:13 Can you run us through briefly what the others entail?
19:16 Yeah, sure. I mean, the basic 10 step plan that we've put together really demonstrates
19:20 how our three businesses work together. And there's no one size fits all package. Everybody's
19:26 move and circumstances are unique and all of our services can be tailor made to suit
19:32 each mover. So you wouldn't have to take all 10 steps if you didn't want them. Zoe offers
19:39 a service where she can make you a list of what to do, of how to stage your home, or
19:44 she can actually come in and do the staging for you. I can take on all of the viewings
19:49 for your property as well, or a lot of our sellers want to do that themselves. Joe at
19:54 Broughtons offers a service where they will pack and unpack, but sometimes sellers like
19:58 to do that themselves as well. But the kind of basic steps start with a free home valuation
20:05 and it builds from there. You've then got estimates from Zoe at LifeEdit and Joe at
20:11 Broughtons and then you're moving on to decluttering, storing and staging steps. You then through
20:17 the estate agency sale and conveyancing stages, which we take care of all under one roof at
20:23 Nielsen's and then we're forwards on to the moving in and the unpacking. The idea being
20:28 that the seller can move in and put their feet up without having to lift a finger.
20:34 And I take it that booking all these things together has its advantage. Is there a sort
20:39 of all in one price or do you pay, is it sort of pick and mix?
20:43 Again it's a pick and mix. You would pay each business separately depending upon which
20:47 services that you want to use. But the real benefit of the package is that you get our
20:52 three experienced heads together to do all of the logistical thinking about the move
20:56 for you. As you were saying at the start, moving house is one of the most stressful
21:01 life events that people undertake. It's rated up there with a death in the family or divorce
21:06 and sometimes our clients are going through more than one of those things at a time. So
21:11 we're on hand with the compassion and empathy and understanding, but also the experience
21:16 to be able to guide you through that process. So the things that sellers can find very stressful
21:21 delays on moving day and things like that, that we're quite used to, we see them as a
21:25 little bump in the road. We're there to make that process as streamlined as possible.
21:30 I was going to say that it's something that hasn't really been offered in this country,
21:35 but it is the sort of service seen in other countries. I am for my sins a fan of those
21:43 dreadful American real estate programs selling sunset and things like that. My daughter forces
21:50 me to watch them and yeah, it's really high end properties and it really is. It does seem
21:55 that owners just sort of hand their keys over to their realtor and walk away and all the
22:02 staging is done and then they sort of reappear when their new house is bought and furnished.
22:09 But I know that I suppose international companies sometimes after that top executives, they
22:14 will have a relocation specialist who will work with them and do absolutely everything.
22:21 So who do you see it appealing to? Is it families? Is it downsizers?
22:26 Most home movers, most home sellers aren't in a position to be able to move out of their
22:30 property whilst it's on the market. They need to be able to live there whilst the sale is
22:34 ongoing and in an ideal world, they move concurrently into their next property as well. So the service
22:42 that we've put together is very mindful of that and it's something that the three of
22:45 us actually as busy working mums kind of wish we could have if we were moving. So that's
22:51 kind of where we started from is who are those people who are our clients already who would
22:56 like and benefit from this? And it's actually suitable for a huge variety of sellers. Quite
23:03 often those looking to downsize, they want to move but they just don't know where to
23:08 begin with all the stuff that they've accumulated over 30, maybe 40 years of living in a property.
23:14 Or those who are moving up the property ladder and actually they've accumulated so much stuff
23:19 that they desperately need to move to somewhere bigger. But by having all that stuff, they
23:23 can't show their property off to its best advantage. It really shows that they've outgrown
23:27 the space, that their need to move is genuine, but it's never going to help their property
23:33 on the market. So it can really suit a lot of people. We've had clients who've inherited
23:40 big bulky items of heirloom furniture that they've then put into the example I'm thinking
23:46 of is actually a very modern flattened leaf that they put it into and it just wasn't looking
23:51 right there. So what they needed to do is put those items in storage until they moved
23:55 into their Edwardian house that they bought and then their furniture fitted their lifestyle.
24:00 So it's really great.
24:01 And maybe just a bit of advice from Zoe.
24:04 Yeah.
24:05 I think part of how this all came together was it kind of happened slightly organically
24:12 in that I recognize that most of the word that happened that my clients say more than
24:17 any other word is overwhelmed. So almost every single person, no matter what their circumstance
24:22 or size of house or where they are in their life, they almost always say, I just feel
24:27 really overwhelmed when I go to work with them. And if they feel overwhelmed in a sort
24:32 of everyday situation, imagine as Amy says, when they're dealing with one of life's most
24:37 stressful situations and they've got to deal with conveyancing and surveyors and chains
24:43 of houses and all that kind of stuff. And so we're basically taking the overwhelm away
24:47 from them. And I think that is so important. We're all so busy and stressed these days
24:55 and it could actually sort of put people off thinking about selling the property because
24:58 it just seems so it seems like a mountain that people aren't able to climb. And in using
25:02 all of our three specialisms, we just make it really, really, really easy for them and
25:07 take that load off them.
25:09 I can understand that. I think one of the most stressful things during the whole process
25:13 is having to sort of get all your ducks in a row. So, you know, the removal people are
25:19 coming on this day and therefore the house cleaners are here and you know, that kind
25:24 of thing. I remember when I was moving last time, the carpet fitters were delayed and
25:32 our removal van was on the way and the carpet fitters were putting down, they were desperately
25:37 trying to finish putting down the carpet so that our wardrobes and beds wouldn't go down
25:42 on bare boards and have to be taken out again. And that was the incredible stressful bit.
25:48 Whereas I can actually understand the sort of joined up service that you're talking about
25:53 where it might not be your client's responsibility to phone the next person and say there's been
25:58 a delay or can we change the date of that. You three are going to get together and kind
26:04 of sort it. Is that, am I getting the right idea?
26:07 Exactly. Because it can feel like a chain of events that you've got no control over,
26:11 which is where people feel really, really, really stressed. The other thing about it
26:14 is apart from helping you go through the process and make it a lot less stressful, much more
26:19 streamlined staging your house can actually make you money on your sale. So there's lots
26:25 of different data about this, but it's staged houses sell twice as fast as non-staged houses
26:33 on average and for about 10% more. So if you think about the average cost of a house in
26:40 Edinburgh, which Amy will have the statistics on.
26:43 I think latest data is 345,000.
26:47 So that's about £35,000 on average that you might be set to gain, which is a huge amount
26:53 of money. So it's a bit of a no brainer really when you know that.
26:58 And do you find it difficult Zoe to go into people's houses? I mean, I'm sure you wouldn't
27:02 say anything like this is awful, but do you sometimes find it difficult? I'm just wondering
27:08 about possibly elderly people or whatever who've lived in a much cherished house for
27:13 a long time and you can see what the problem is, whether it's, you know, swirly carpets
27:19 or, you know, just sort of slightly dated interiors. Is it all about just being very
27:25 sensitive and leading them by the hand?
27:27 Everything we do at LifeEdit is about that. I think people think it's all about tidying
27:31 and organizing, but it's really not. That's very secondary. Everything is about realizing
27:36 you're in somebody's house and you have to be incredibly sensitive and ask so many gentle
27:43 questions to make sure that you're not saying the wrong thing. And I think that's something
27:48 that we are brilliant at at LifeEdit. You know, that's the thing that I think we'd
27:51 pride ourselves on. The other thing is making sure that you are helping the client make
27:56 the right decisions. So I'm helping to stage a property at the moment, which is very swirly
28:00 carpets and kind of, you know, it could do with a kitchen refit and all that kind of
28:06 stuff. And the client had said to me, should we do all that before, you know, before we
28:09 sell? But actually I sort of advise them that that would be not the right idea because people
28:15 would buy that as seen. They want to come in and remodel the whole thing and they'd
28:21 want to choose the kitchen, that kind of thing.
28:23 As an opportunity, some houses.
28:26 Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So we sometimes have to sort of rein people back because they just
28:32 are not sure how far to go with it. And so we did that, but we really, they were avid
28:37 collectors, these people. And so we've really depersonalized it so that you can see the
28:41 full extent of each room, even if you think that the decor is not for you.
28:45 Amy, I was going to say, do you go into houses to value them right at the initial stage and
28:50 think, oh, here's one for Zoe?
28:52 Yeah, certainly. You know, at Nielsen's we offer our own sort of house doctoring advice
28:58 as standard. But I think that what Zoe offers is really a level beyond that to sort of look
29:06 at the function of each room properly, look at the flow of the space and how that will
29:11 work for viewers coming in. And sometimes just having another pair of eyes on somewhere
29:16 can be really helpful that I've maybe gone in and said, look, I don't think they need
29:20 to redecorate this space. What do you think? And Zoe can say, actually, if they just refitted
29:25 the carpet, that would make the world of difference to this room. So again, it's heads together
29:29 that can make a big difference.
29:32 And at the other end of the process, when people have moved in, as you say, Amy, most
29:39 of your clients will be moving on the same day. Most of us will be moving on the same
29:44 day. We will not have the luxury of moving to our other home while things are going on.
29:50 But Zoe, do you, the sort of unpacking service and starting off in a new home in an organised
30:01 way, do your clients find that an advantage as well?
30:05 The amount of people's houses I go into and they say, those boxes moved with us and that
30:09 was 10 years ago. Honestly, you wouldn't believe it. And then the more they sit there, the
30:14 more people think, oh, now I can't open those boxes because I've no idea what's in them.
30:18 And so I can see that there is so much good to be had in us coming in and organising people
30:26 straight away, because all you're thinking about is getting in the house. You're not
30:30 thinking about how am I going to organise this cupboard? Where's best for this piece
30:34 of furniture to go? So if we can do that with people, again, with our fresh eyes, without
30:38 our emotional attachment or our exhaustion through moving, and we can just come in and
30:42 sort it all out for people, then they're never having to phone us and say, those boxes have
30:46 been there for 10 years and I never unpacked them. So it's absolutely invaluable.
30:52 We haven't talked too much about the removals and storage part of that, because it's a
31:00 really three of you, isn't it? Amy, could you tell us a little bit about what Broughtons
31:06 can bring to the package?
31:08 So Broughtons are a long Edinburgh established company. They were set up in the 1970s. And
31:14 Jo Monroe, who runs Broughtons now, has taken on the business from her dad, Sonny, who lots
31:20 of Edinburgh home movers will know and have met over the years. And Jo's really passionate
31:27 about what they do. They have a brilliant team of people who are, again, sympathetic
31:33 and empathetic to home movers and the stresses that they're going through. But what they
31:37 have as well is this really brilliant warehouse storage facility, secure, dry, clean storage.
31:45 And unlike some other storage facilities where you're paying a lot of money to have regular
31:49 access to a sort of shipping container style locker, theirs is sort of, Jo would explain
31:53 this much better than me.
31:54 Palleted.
31:55 Palleted crate storage. So your stuff is sort of secured out the way whilst you move. And
32:01 then on moving day, they'll bring everything that you've put in storage with you to the
32:05 new house. So again, they offer a packing service where they take really great care
32:11 of all your furniture and possessions. Jo is very conscious of the fact that they're
32:15 not just moving people's furniture, they're moving their lifetime of memories as well.
32:21 So the kind of ethos behind Broughton's as a removal firm and storage firm and who they
32:27 are and what they do fits very well alongside us at Nielsen's, who are another long established
32:33 Edinburgh family firm and what Zoe brings to the table with LifeEdit as well.
32:38 Yeah. On that note, you being the estate agency expert in this, can I just as a little aside,
32:48 how has the beginning of the year been for you? Have you been quiet? Have you been busy?
32:51 I'm getting all sorts of different reports.
32:53 Yeah, it's been a busy start to the year, actually. I think the great news that we've
32:59 had from mortgage lenders reducing interest rates and, you know, a lot of the lenders
33:03 are almost entering a price war with each other over lower rates, competitive rates.
33:09 And that's come down significantly from where we were last autumn and certainly from where
33:13 we were in autumn 2022 with the Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng debacle. So I'm cautiously
33:20 optimistic going into this year that it's going to be a good year. Obviously, the market
33:24 that I operate within in Edinburgh and the Lothians is historically a resilient marketplace.
33:31 We've got good population expansion projections. We've got a geographically small city hemmed
33:38 in by the Pentland Hills in one direction and the first of the fourth in the other.
33:42 And we're actually buffered by our status as a capital city as well. So the Edinburgh
33:47 market is strong. It's been a strong start to the year. Both Rightmove, Zoopla and ESPC
33:54 are all reporting a spike in buyer interest looking at the listings websites, which is
34:00 always an encouraging start.
34:01 Yeah, I'm always interested to see that there's always a spike on Christmas Day. I was talking
34:07 about it with my last guest. But also in the first couple of weeks of the new year, people
34:12 are obviously sort of New Year's resolutions or getting things sorted or this house is
34:16 no good for us. We need a new life. Just going back to your service, have any of you thought
34:24 about other services? I was thinking about, you know, possibly professional cleaners coming
34:31 in. You could even on the day of moving, think about childcare or dog sitting. But have you
34:37 thought about expanding the offering?
34:39 Yeah, I mean, we've all got a little black book of contacts, all three of us that can,
34:45 you know, between the three of us, we would have somebody to do just about anything. Zoe's
34:49 got a vetted professional cleaning company that they recommend. I've got a list of handymen,
34:57 painters, decorators, the various trades that you might need, both preparing for a sale
35:02 and moving into a new house. And yeah, endless contacts. I'm sure between the three of us,
35:08 we could cover just about anything.
35:10 I think it all sounds brilliant. And it's a great idea and a really good service to
35:15 bring to the capital. I hope that it expands to other parts of the country. That's it for
35:20 this edition of the Scotsman Property Podcast. And if you would like to get involved in future
35:25 programs or any of the Scotsman other podcasts, either as a guest or a sponsor, do get in
35:31 touch at podcast@scotsman.com. Thank you both and listen out for the Scotsman podcast next
35:40 month.
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