Online Mortgage Advisor has surveyed more than 1,300 home movers in Britain, and found that 64% say that moving house was their most stressful experience of the past five years. Many say that they are put off moving again due to their negative experiences.
Ten categories of stress triggers were created by asking respondents to indicate what they found most stressful about moving home in their own words. The following were the top five most commonly cited sources of stress:
- Finding and securing a property – 46%
- Selling their own property – 36%
- Waiting for the chain to complete – 34%
- Completing and removals – 21%
- Solicitors/conveyancing – 14%
69% of those surveyed said that they would be put off moving home again, although it is not clear how long they would continue to feel that way.
Just 8% of home movers said that they didn’t find the experience significantly stressful.
Online Mortgage Advisor has partnered with clarity coach Jamie Smart to launch a wellbeing portal, which it hopes will help its customers during the particularly stressful time of moving home.
Pete Mugleston, Managing Director at Online Mortgage Advisor, explained: “This has made us stop and think. We’re regularly thinking about how we can make the process of obtaining a mortgage smoother for our customers. But that’s only one small part of the whole experience for home movers and first-time buyers.
“We should be giving more consideration to how we can add value outside of helping customers find the right financial advice. My personal struggles with anxiety in the past, and the things that helped resolve them, made teaming up with Jamie Smart a natural starting point. We will endeavour to build on this inside and outside our wellbeing portal as time goes on.”