Phil Spencer: Hello, this is Mortgage Insider from Barclays, the one- stop
Phil Spencer: shop for mortgage brokers and everything that you need to
Phil Spencer: know about the housing market. I'm Phil Spencer, property expert
Phil Spencer: and sometime TV presenter. In this episode, we're looking specifically
Phil Spencer: at Scotland. Whilst the housing market in England is showing
Phil Spencer: signs of slowing down, many house sales in Scotland are
Phil Spencer: attracting offers above the asking price. Obviously they have a
Phil Spencer: different system there. So to find out more, I'm joined
Phil Spencer: by Colleen Babcock, who's head of partner marketing and property
Phil Spencer: expert at Rightmove and by someone who's traveled all the
Phil Spencer: way from Glasgow this morning to join us. Lynne Peterkin.
Phil Spencer: She's managing director at First Mortgage, one of the biggest
Phil Spencer: brokerages in Scotland that also operates south of the border. So
Phil Spencer: great to have you with us both. So Lynne, here
Phil Spencer: we are right at the end of March. Can you
Phil Spencer: talk to us for the benefit of those of us
Phil Spencer: space in the south of England, about the headlines and
Phil Spencer: things that you're seeing in the housing market in Scotland at
Phil Spencer: the moment?
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah. So it's been a really strong start to Scotland
Lynne Peterkin: this year. We had a very good run in 2025
Lynne Peterkin: and usually you'll see in quarter one lots of inquiries
Lynne Peterkin: coming in, but not a lot of movement. But the
Lynne Peterkin: property market's been really steady this first quarter of the
Lynne Peterkin: year. Lots of demand, lots of first time buyers and
Lynne Peterkin: home movers looking to move into the next home. But
Lynne Peterkin: like everywhere else in the UK just now, there's a bit of an
Lynne Peterkin: imbalance between demand and supply set in certain regions as
Lynne Peterkin: well in Scotland.
Phil Spencer: Colleen, is that reflected in the data that you're seeing at Rightmove?
Colleen Babcock: Certainly what we're seeing is really consistent positive house growth.
Colleen Babcock: From all over Scotland, 2025 was really strong, 2% growth.
Colleen Babcock: And that's really interesting because Scotland has outperformed England and
Colleen Babcock: Wales. So the growth was only 0. 5% in house prices across
Colleen Babcock: the UK as a whole. So definitely something that we're
Colleen Babcock: seeing in the data.
Phil Spencer: And Lynne, how are your clients finding it actually on the
Phil Spencer: ground of those who are active at the moment?
Lynne Peterkin: So we've got two types of clients. We've got the
Lynne Peterkin: clients that are really eager to move straight away, saved
Lynne Peterkin: all the deposit, wanting a city life and don't want
Lynne Peterkin: to budge from a city life. Then we've got the
Lynne Peterkin: other client who has been saving a deposit for ages,
Lynne Peterkin: trying to get onto the property ladder, but are more
Lynne Peterkin: open to looking outside of our typical cities to try
Lynne Peterkin: and get onto the property market. Just like what Colleen
Lynne Peterkin: said there, there is better buck for your money, if
Lynne Peterkin: I could say it that way. And our surrounding areas
Lynne Peterkin: outside of our top places, Edinburgh and Glasgow are our hotspots.
Lynne Peterkin: So that's kind of what we're finding on the ground.
Lynne Peterkin: A lot of people getting outbid as well.
Phil Spencer: People always search out value, don't they? Whatever stage of life,
Phil Spencer: particularly, I always think first time buyers are brilliant at
Phil Spencer: searching out value. But Colleen, I'm interested to know how
Phil Spencer: the Scotland market compares with England and Wales at the moment.
Colleen Babcock: So it is outperforming. It's really down to the fact
Colleen Babcock: that you can find much cheaper property prices in Scotland
Colleen Babcock: and that's really underpinning the growth that we're seeing. And
Colleen Babcock: we're also seeing people finding a buyer much more quickly
Colleen Babcock: in Scotland. That's a general trend.
Phil Spencer: I did a bit of research into your own right
Phil Spencer: move numbers and yes, Scotland was 40 days to find
Phil Spencer: a buyer, whereas the UK was 74 days. That's a
Phil Spencer: significant difference.
Colleen Babcock: It's really dramatic. And interestingly, in the first part of
Colleen Babcock: 2026, it's actually gone down by four days. So it's
Colleen Babcock: sped up considerably. If you're looking at the first time
Colleen Babcock: buyer market that Lynne has just mentioned there, it's actually
Colleen Babcock: two days less for those sellers of first time buyer
Colleen Babcock: properties to actually find a buyer successfully. So there's demand
Colleen Babcock: happening there in Scotland.
Phil Spencer: And what do we put that down to apart from
Phil Spencer: the... It is more affordable, the point of entry is
Phil Spencer: lower, but what else is making that distinction?
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah. I mean, I think a lot to do with
Lynne Peterkin: the legal system, if I'm honest. So you've got the
Lynne Peterkin: estate agents, the front end and the Scottish property market
Lynne Peterkin: is quicker. Mortgage lenders are bringing offers out within 10
Lynne Peterkin: days, believe it or not. But in Scotland, we do
Lynne Peterkin: have a bit of an advantage that when you have
Lynne Peterkin: put an offering on your property and you sign missives
Lynne Peterkin: is legally binding, whereas in England, you've got the Gazpin, somebody
Lynne Peterkin: comes in and they 11th hour with cash, but in
Lynne Peterkin: Scotland you're tied to it and then you're tied to signing those
Lynne Peterkin: missives within a certain timeframe. So that really-
Phil Spencer: Speeds things up.
Lynne Peterkin: ... it just speeds it up.
Phil Spencer: You've also got the home report value as well, hasn't it?
Phil Spencer: So that actually takes a cog out of the process,
Phil Spencer: for want of a better word.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah, Phil, and that's actually upfront, our customers see that.
Lynne Peterkin: So when you are putting your house on the market
Lynne Peterkin: in Scotland, then you have to produce... And that's on
Lynne Peterkin: the seller. They have to produce the home buying report.
Phil Spencer: Which all lenders recognize.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah, all lenders recognize. And within that home buying report
Lynne Peterkin: is the property valuation and that's what is produced to
Lynne Peterkin: the lender and that does speed up the process.
Phil Spencer: Massively.
Lynne Peterkin: Yep.
Phil Spencer: There was another statistic of note, I thought. Compared to
Phil Spencer: five years prior to 2020, the demand from buyers from
Phil Spencer: outside of Scotland's risen by 63%. I mean, Scotland's having
Phil Spencer: a wonderful time. What do we put that down to?
Colleen Babcock: So that again is such an interesting trend that we
Colleen Babcock: found in our data at Rightmove and the biggest group
Colleen Babcock: that are actually looking from outside Scotland to move into
Colleen Babcock: Scotland is coming from London and the Southeast, which are
Colleen Babcock: also the most expensive regions at the moment. So that's
Colleen Babcock: again, people looking for that affordability with increased flexibility with
Colleen Babcock: working, people able to work from home or hybrid working
Colleen Babcock: that gives them the ability to choose where they want
Colleen Babcock: to live. And certainly when I've been speaking to agents
Colleen Babcock: in Scotland, they're telling me they are seeing that trend continuing.
Phil Spencer: But of course the hotspots, the obvious ones are Edinburgh
Phil Spencer: and Glasgow, but there are many other brilliant places to live that have
Phil Spencer: also been performing really well.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah. So Glasgow and Edinburgh are hotspots, but we've got the Central
Lynne Peterkin: Belt in Scotland. So you've got two corridors, you've got
Lynne Peterkin: towards Glasgow, Falkirk, and then you've got towards Edinburgh, Fife,
Lynne Peterkin: Kurkodi, and also in the Central Belt, we've got Motherwell,
Lynne Peterkin: Lanarkshire area. Now all these areas are within 45 minutes
Lynne Peterkin: commute. So what we're finding is, like I said earlier,
Lynne Peterkin: one client wants the hustle and bustle of city life,
Lynne Peterkin: Glasgow and Edinburgh, which is probably equivalent to London. And
Lynne Peterkin: then we've got the other client that's looking for a
Lynne Peterkin: wee bit more remote and more money at value for
Lynne Peterkin: money and your typical Edinburgh property could be 250 grand for a two
Lynne Peterkin: bedroom flat just for example. And out in Lanarkshire or indeed
Lynne Peterkin: in Fife, you could be looking at a three bedroom
Lynne Peterkin: property for about 170, 000. So there's a big difference
Lynne Peterkin: and there's great commuting lines straight in and also with
Lynne Peterkin: the hybrid working now and remote working, just what Colleen
Lynne Peterkin: said there, we're actually finding ourself, we can actually reach
Lynne Peterkin: more employees to join us in first mortgage from south
Lynne Peterkin: of the border as well because we can do remote
Lynne Peterkin: working. So I can see that's happening in the property
Lynne Peterkin: market as well that people are thinking, let's move up
Lynne Peterkin: to Scotland.
Phil Spencer: So you're seeing that as a brokerage, a lot of
Phil Spencer: your customers are moving from the south.
Lynne Peterkin: So in our brokerage we have locations in Newcastle and Manchester.
Lynne Peterkin: So they'll kind of tend to stay where they are,
Lynne Peterkin: but we do see a lot of people that are
Lynne Peterkin: maybe coming up to Edinburgh and they'll be moving from
Lynne Peterkin: more so from Manchester. Actually we've seen a few of
Lynne Peterkin: that moving into Edinburgh purely for work, but also they're
Lynne Peterkin: moving just up a wee bit. I've not experienced it
Lynne Peterkin: in London yet, but we have just opened a London
Lynne Peterkin: branch so we might find that out.
Phil Spencer: On the topic of work, I was interested to hear
Phil Spencer: your thoughts on the Highlands. I read that Inverness was
Phil Spencer: Scotland's fastest growing city, which I presume was in terms
Phil Spencer: of population, but would I be right in thinking that
Phil Spencer: there is a lot of potential opportunity up there in the world
Phil Spencer: of green energy and that as an industry is likely
Phil Spencer: to expand and there's going to be a lot more employment.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah, definitely. And we are actually new build experts as well
Lynne Peterkin: and part of the new build growth in Scotland, again,
Lynne Peterkin: different to the rest of the UK. There's a lot
Lynne Peterkin: of new builds going to be happening in the next
Lynne Peterkin: two years and Inverness and surrounding areas. So again, you
Lynne Peterkin: still have that demand versus supply right now, but with
Lynne Peterkin: the green energy and clean living, the jobs that that could
Lynne Peterkin: create then hopefully with the new builds, the kind of
Lynne Peterkin: speed of grains-
Phil Spencer: And people have got somewhere to live. They need somewhere to live.
Lynne Peterkin: Exactly.
Phil Spencer: Yeah. I mean, I love Scotland and all of our programs are
Phil Spencer: actually made in Scotland.
Lynne Peterkin: Wow.
Phil Spencer: Both production companies that I work with are based in
Phil Spencer: Glasgow. I love it as a country and I'd like
Phil Spencer: to spend more time there. I'd like to do more
Phil Spencer: work there. Our challenge from when we're firming location, rather
Phil Spencer: than in the cities, it's particularly down that west coast
Phil Spencer: or even getting up into the Highlands is there isn't
Phil Spencer: enough properties for our research team to go and look
Phil Spencer: at 25 or 30 so we can select three or four.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah. And in Inverness in particular, it's quite a niche area.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah, there's not a lot of properties there at the
Lynne Peterkin: moment, but it is definitely getting built out. Yep.
Phil Spencer: Well, that's perhaps where we've got the imbalance between supply
Phil Spencer: and demand, and that is what is underpinning the activity in Scotland's market
Phil Spencer: for the moment.
Colleen Babcock: Yes, certainly we can see that in the data for
Colleen Babcock: Inverness where there is a rise in the amount of
Colleen Babcock: demand year on year they're up 18% and yet listings
Colleen Babcock: are down. So there isn't the property available for the
Colleen Babcock: people who want to move there.
Phil Spencer: Is there anything else you could add from Rightmove's perspective or
Phil Spencer: things that you're spotting in the Scottish data?
Colleen Babcock: Absolutely. I think in terms of what we're seeing, it
Colleen Babcock: does mirror this whole affordability trend again. So in Edinburgh,
Colleen Babcock: which is one of the more expensive markets, the average
Colleen Babcock: price there is around 315, 000 and you see a
Colleen Babcock: little smidge of growth in house prices year on year
Colleen Babcock: from Edinburgh, but demand from buyers a little bit lower.
Colleen Babcock: When you go to Glasgow, you see that house price
Colleen Babcock: is coming down. The average price is cheaper in Glasgow,
Colleen Babcock: so it's around 197,000 on average there. So you get
Colleen Babcock: more for your money. I'm told a lot by agents
Colleen Babcock: from Glasgow that schools, the local authority schools are really
Colleen Babcock: great in Glasgow. So people tend to think of the
Colleen Babcock: school fees as being wrapped into their mortgage. It's a really
Colleen Babcock: big draw in that particular area, but again, demand a
Colleen Babcock: little bit lower whereas actually Dundee where you're seeing lower
Colleen Babcock: prices on average, so 174,000 is getting stronger growth in
Colleen Babcock: terms of house prices and also in demand from buyers.
Colleen Babcock: So you're seeing that sort of wider trend around more affordable places,
Colleen Babcock: having better house price growth and more interest from buyers
Colleen Babcock: being mirrored within Scotland itself.
Phil Spencer: How are things in Aberdeen? I always think that's quite a sort of transient place. Is that fair?
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah. So again, we have branches in Aberdeen and the
Lynne Peterkin: Aberdeen market kind of goes up and down with whatever's
Lynne Peterkin: going on with the oil. At the moment, I would
Lynne Peterkin: say that's not flat, but it's just steady in Aberdeen just
Lynne Peterkin: now. And again, pockets of more for first time buyers
Lynne Peterkin: looking for a one or two bedroom flat, they really
Lynne Peterkin: are quite competitive. So if you want a three bedroom
Lynne Peterkin: house, it's okay, but the one and two bedroom flats
Lynne Peterkin: are the area where it's quite tough to get on the
Lynne Peterkin: market. Can I just add on the Dundee part? That is
Lynne Peterkin: a big talking point actually. Again, we have a couple
Lynne Peterkin: of branches in Dundee and one thing our customers are
Lynne Peterkin: starting to look at is like you said, Colleen, the
Lynne Peterkin: schooling, but also the universities. So Dundee University has been
Lynne Peterkin: getting quite a big Kenny talking point and that does
Lynne Peterkin: attract customers coming in. So if they were maybe going towards Fife
Lynne Peterkin: or even into Edinburgh, they might just think, well, that's
Lynne Peterkin: like an hour and a half commute away. We can
Lynne Peterkin: kind of move a bit further out and get, again,
Lynne Peterkin: more value for their money.
Phil Spencer: Okay. Thank you. Good advice. Good to know. What's the situation with landlords in
Phil Spencer: Scotland? Are they coming? Are they going? Where are we at?
Colleen Babcock: So landlord is one of the real areas of strength
Colleen Babcock: with Scotland at the moment and that's-
Phil Spencer: That wasn't the answer I was expecting. That's good.
Colleen Babcock: It is good. It's a great thing for the Scottish
Colleen Babcock: market. So one of the things we're seeing is we've
Colleen Babcock: got really strong yields happening in Scotland. So it's about 7.
Colleen Babcock: 8% at the end of 2025 compared to 6.3% for the
Colleen Babcock: rest of the UK so much stronger return. You've also
Colleen Babcock: got stronger house price growth. So that means better capital
Colleen Babcock: growth for landlords as well and a lower entry point
Colleen Babcock: to get into buying property in Scotland.
Phil Spencer: What about taxes?
Colleen Babcock: So taxes are actually the highest in Scotland compared to
Colleen Babcock: the rest of the UK. So you have your land
Colleen Babcock: business and transaction tax, which is the Scottish equivalent of
Colleen Babcock: stamp duty and on top of that you have an
Colleen Babcock: additional dwelling supplement of 8%.
Phil Spencer: So that's a second home or any kind of buy to lead?
Lynne Peterkin: Any property.
Phil Spencer: 8%. It's a big number.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah. So again, from our customer point of view as
Lynne Peterkin: well that we have to make sure they understand that.
Lynne Peterkin: So they've got any property in the background, whether it's a buy to let,
Lynne Peterkin: a second home, a holiday home, anything they own, they're
Lynne Peterkin: going to have this additional dwelling tax.
Phil Spencer: But you're seeing buy to let customers now?
Lynne Peterkin: For first mortgage we see some buy to let customers,
Lynne Peterkin: but we are more into the first time buyer home
Lynne Peterkin: moving market, but we do have some of our longstanding
Lynne Peterkin: customers who have decided to then go on and be
Lynne Peterkin: a landlord and decide to let their property out. So we
Lynne Peterkin: do see that, but the change in the additional dwelling
Lynne Peterkin: tax does sometimes put some people off and they'll end
Lynne Peterkin: up maybe selling it to their tenant that's actually living
Lynne Peterkin: in it. We can see that as well.
Phil Spencer: But as Colleen said, lower point of entry.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah, definitely.
Phil Spencer: It makes it more accessible to a wider number of
Phil Spencer: people. And if the yields are good and the general
Phil Spencer: house prices is rising, then it's an attractive proposition.
Lynne Peterkin: Definitely the yields increasing.
Phil Spencer: And we've also talked about there isn't enough houses in
Phil Spencer: certain parts of Scotland, given the amount of employment that is there or
Phil Spencer: is coming. Let's just have a little moment to reflect
Phil Spencer: on or compare Southern England to Scotland. I'd be interested in
Phil Spencer: your thoughts as to why there is a contrast and what's
Phil Spencer: driving it.
Colleen Babcock: There were really big differences between what happened over the
Colleen Babcock: course of 2025 in England versus in Scotland. And generally
Colleen Babcock: speaking, if you plot out what happens with the property
Colleen Babcock: market on a line graph and nothing gets party started
Colleen Babcock: like a line graph, you see that really in England
Colleen Babcock: the highs are higher and the lows are lower, but
Colleen Babcock: actually in Scotland it's very much steady as she goes.
Colleen Babcock: It's reassuringly boring. That is absolutely a compliment, that is
Colleen Babcock: a great thing to have in a property market. People
Colleen Babcock: like certainty when they're making those decisions. And the reason
Colleen Babcock: over 2025 that we saw those higher highs and lower
Colleen Babcock: lows is because we had a stamp duty holiday that
Colleen Babcock: came to an end at the end of March in 2025
Colleen Babcock: and particularly in the Southeastern London, buyers really kicked into
Colleen Babcock: gear at the end of 2024, beginning of 2025, really front
Colleen Babcock: loaded the year with activity. And then we saw a
Colleen Babcock: budget which came out late November, but we saw rumors
Colleen Babcock: circulating as early as August and that made people really
Colleen Babcock: uneasy about what was happening and we actually surveyed home
Colleen Babcock: movers and one in five said they actually put off
Colleen Babcock: their moving plans because of uncertainty around the budget. So
Colleen Babcock: we kind of had a year of two halves in
Colleen Babcock: England where you don't see that in Scotland. It was
Colleen Babcock: really steady. There wasn't a stamp duty holiday. There was
Colleen Babcock: a budget, which was in January of this year, but
Colleen Babcock: it was kind of at nothing to see here type
Colleen Babcock: of budget. So it didn't cause the kind of disruption
Colleen Babcock: that we saw in England.
Phil Spencer: Yeah. Steady as she goes. I like that.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah, I like that.
Phil Spencer: Good old Scotland. More of the same, please.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah, definitely.
Colleen Babcock: And there's also a really big difference in terms of
Colleen Babcock: supply and demand happening, particularly in the Southeastern London where
Colleen Babcock: we're seeing an 11 year high in the number of
Colleen Babcock: available homes for sale and we're seeing softer demand from
Colleen Babcock: buyers in those areas as well, particularly when you're comparing
Colleen Babcock: to that really strong start to 2025 that we saw.
Colleen Babcock: So it's really meaning that when you're selling a property
Colleen Babcock: in the south in particular, you have to be thinking
Colleen Babcock: really competitively about the price to find a buyer and
Colleen Babcock: that's not happening in Scotland at the moment. There's a
Colleen Babcock: lot more demand, there's a lot more activity happening in Scotland.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah. And I'd actually say in Scotland, it's probably flipped that it's competitive
Lynne Peterkin: as in how much over the home report can I
Lynne Peterkin: get from my property? And in areas like Edinburgh, at
Lynne Peterkin: least in Edinburgh actually, that's probably one of our biggest
Lynne Peterkin: hotspots outside the city center. They were still offers over 5%.
Lynne Peterkin: You've got 10 people going for the same property and
Lynne Peterkin: that's just kind of whips up that not, I wouldn't
Lynne Peterkin: say a frenzy, but the demand is definitely there.
Phil Spencer: It's fascinating, isn't it? I mean, it's what keeps us
Phil Spencer: all doing what we do because every month is different.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah, it is.
Phil Spencer: And the market is very polarized. So it frustrates me enormously
Phil Spencer: when you read the headlines about the UK housing markets
Phil Spencer: doing this. Well, that might be useful if you're an
Phil Spencer: economist deciding policy, but actually as an individual or a
Phil Spencer: broker involved in a particular market, it's pretty relevant. You've
Phil Spencer: got to understand your market and the things that drive it.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah, definitely. And actually what we say to any of our customers
Lynne Peterkin: coming in, you always get asked the question, " Is now
Lynne Peterkin: the time to buy?" And we always say, there's never a
Lynne Peterkin: right time to buy, but if it's your budget, your
Lynne Peterkin: affordability, and where you want to stay, then go for
Lynne Peterkin: it because you can never second guess the market because
Lynne Peterkin: you just go for it.
Phil Spencer: There's a lot more to it than just numbers. It's
Phil Spencer: a roof over your head. It's your privacy. It's your
Phil Spencer: sanctuary. It's your safety. It's where you have your loved
Phil Spencer: ones and bring your children up.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah, definitely.
Phil Spencer: And that's when it's time to do something, it's time
Phil Spencer: to do something. Is there anything either of you would
Phil Spencer: imagine that brokers would find helpful? If they're listening to
Phil Spencer: this, sat in their offices, what's going through their mind?
Phil Spencer: Anything else that you'd like to add to them?
Lynne Peterkin: For myself, being a broker myself, I would be saying
Lynne Peterkin: to all brokers to get really early on the home
Lynne Peterkin: buying process with their customers. I think now more than
Lynne Peterkin: ever clients need advice, especially if they're trying to think
Lynne Peterkin: about how to get on the property ladder, how to build a deposit,
Lynne Peterkin: where can I live? If we can get to them
Lynne Peterkin: before the step foot in the estate agent, we can
Lynne Peterkin: really educate them. So that's probably my takeaway for any
Lynne Peterkin: broker is get on that nurture journey early with your customers.
Phil Spencer: Yeah. Stay in touch, build that relationship.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah, definitely.
Phil Spencer: Colleen, any thoughts from you on that one, brokers?
Colleen Babcock: Well, Lynne and I were having a chat before we
Colleen Babcock: came in and we were talking about how in Scotland
Colleen Babcock: there's a slightly different system. So you have valuation in
Colleen Babcock: the home report and that's what lenders are using to
Colleen Babcock: lend on that amount. So if you are finding yourself
Colleen Babcock: in a bidding war, Lynne was talking about first time
Colleen Babcock: buyers, this is happening. We are seeing really strong demand
Colleen Babcock: from first time buyers in Scotland. It's up 4% compared to
Colleen Babcock: the rest of the UK, which is actually down by 0.4%.
Colleen Babcock: So a slightly different trend happening in Scotland. And if
Colleen Babcock: you offer above the home report value the mortgage typically
Colleen Babcock: doesn't cover that so you've got to have the cash
Colleen Babcock: to cover it.
Phil Spencer: But it's fairly standard, isn't it? I was in Edinburgh
Phil Spencer: about a month ago and standard was 10% over the
Phil Spencer: home report value.
Lynne Peterkin: That came down slightly now, but we're still around about
Lynne Peterkin: 5% over. The home buying report, but what Colleen is
Lynne Peterkin: saying is correct. You have a first time buyer that's spent all
Lynne Peterkin: their time building their deposit, then they're going to get
Lynne Peterkin: outbid and they can't add that onto the mortgage and
Lynne Peterkin: it has to be additional cash. So it's back to
Lynne Peterkin: the bank of mom and dad or whoever's helping them
Lynne Peterkin: to actually be able to create enough funds to go
Lynne Peterkin: on and buy that property. So that is a bit of
Lynne Peterkin: a sticking point as well. It's creating the kind of
Lynne Peterkin: perfect storm, if you like, really leaning into a seller's
Lynne Peterkin: market just now in Scotland.
Phil Spencer: And I guess, seeing as we have talked about the numbers of people
Phil Spencer: moving from out of Scotland, actually the advice from brokers
Phil Spencer: needs to be, you've got to get yourself familiar with
Phil Spencer: the Scottish system because it is very different. And there are
Phil Spencer: parts that are better and there are parts that perhaps that aren't as good.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah. You need to get totally familiar with it. English law
Lynne Peterkin: versus Scottish law is a bit different and actually the
Lynne Peterkin: legal system's just a bit smoother in Scotland now. That's
Lynne Peterkin: not saying every solicitor is absolutely on their game, but
Lynne Peterkin: we do not have the lag that you have in
Lynne Peterkin: England. The last that I heard, correct me if I'm
Lynne Peterkin: wrong, it was an average of maybe 16, 17 weeks from
Lynne Peterkin: offer to completion in England and that's probably from start
Lynne Peterkin: to finish for us and that's probably elongated should I say.
Phil Spencer: The system chains in England is deeply complicated.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah that's it, it's a chain. That is it.
Phil Spencer: Yours is rather more straightforward.
Lynne Peterkin: Yeah, we're straightforward, like signing a dotted line and actually you're in.
Phil Spencer: Well, great to talk to you both. Thank you so
Phil Spencer: much. That was Colleen Babcock, who's head of partner marketing
Phil Spencer: and property expert at Rightmove and Lynne Peterkin, a managing director
Phil Spencer: at First Mortgage, one of the biggest brokerages in Scotland.
Phil Spencer: Just to point out, we are recording this on the
Phil Spencer: 30th of March 2026 and the views expressed by myself
Phil Spencer: and external guests are not necessarily the views of Barclays.
Phil Spencer: Thanks for listening to Mortgage Insider from Barclays. I'm Phil
Phil Spencer: Spencer and if you're listening to the podcast, you can
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Phil Spencer: again next month.