Recently, Show House’s digital editor, Rory Wilkinson, caught up with Bethan Pierce, owner of part exchange provider, HomeXchange, to find out more about her extensive career, the business’ innovative approach to PX and what the future has in store.
Tell us a little about yourself
I started in mortgages over 24 years ago and have worked with all the major housebuilders in the UK, such as Barratt, Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Redrow over the years.
In 2009, I was headhunted to work in Switzerland as an IFA and within six months started my own firm there, which I ran successfully for three years before returning to the UK for family reasons and establishing Love Mortgages.
Love Mortgages, which was set up in 2014, is now a multi-award-winning brokerage based in Chester. The business delivers truly independent advice, offering access to all lenders and products on the market.
Love Mortgages has maintained five-star Google reviews for over a decade and won consecutive Mortgage Brokerage of the Year awards across multiple regions for the last three years.
Early in 2025, I launched HomeXchange – the unique in-house part exchange funding service that streamlines the home-buying process, empowering clients to act quickly.
How did the idea for HomeXchange come about?
The idea for HomeXchange came to me like most great ideas, over a glass of wine, like a flash after years of experience in the industry! I’d been working with SME housebuilders for many years providing all types of finance, from development finance to mortgage services, and recognised that whilst many of them wanted to offer part exchange, they were restricted in their ability to do so, by the resources required to manage it efficiently, and most importantly, profitably. I realised that if we could take all of the work away from the housebuilder and provide an end-to-end service without them having to worry about tying up funds holding stock, then the customer demand was there to deliver a win/win situation for the house buyer and housebuilder”.
Tell us a little about the company
HomeXchange is one of three sister companies that uniquely positions us to be able to deliver a complete end-to-end service, with an estate agency, a mortgage broker and HomeXchange all under one roof – a virtuous triangle! In addition, we have significant funding from private investors who are all very experienced property professionals and funding lines from specialist lenders and banks.
What makes HomeXchange different to other PX providers?
It’s that virtuous triangle plus our access to funds that differentiates us from most other companies that offer PX services. Typically, they will appoint an estate agent or two to conduct a valuation and prepare a report, but the housebuilder still has to use their own funds to acquire the PX property, tying up working capital that could be used to buy land.
We have the mortgage advisor/estate agent and buyer all under one roof, so the process is seamless. We contact the customer within 24 hours of receiving an enquiry and immediately begin the financial qualification process, saving precious time and wasted effort. We also start to manage the buyer’s expectations regarding the value of their property and the market. We do this using a variety of online tools, but also by conducting in-person valuations.
Having tailored the deal with the housebuilder and the buyer we then step in and buy the PX property at a valuation that works for everyone.
Would you say that PX is becoming more commonly used?
People are moving less often and housebuilders are having to work harder to achieve sales, so part exchange is more common now and we are seeing more and more housebuilders that would like to offer it to their customers.
Is PX a service that a lot of housebuilders are using?
Yes increasingly, and with chains taking longer which increases the risk of sales falling through, it puts more and more buyers at risk of losing their dream home and the builder losing a sale at a late stage in the build.
What benefits does PX bring to developers and buyers?
Home buyers are very interested in part exchange as it gives them the security of knowing that they can move into the new home of their dreams. They also don’t have the hassle and cost of selling their own property. Also, if the home buyer uses HomeXchange and our Love Mortgages service, we can often enable the customer to trade up with minimal impact on their monthly outgoings.
For new housebuilders, the benefits are even greater. The security and speed of sale is a very important benefit. The biggest benefit of HomeXchange is the significant improvement in return on capital employed as they are using our capital, not theirs! This means they can use their funds on what they do best – buying land and building houses.
What does the future hold for Homexchange?
At present, we operate mainly in the North West of England, even though many of our new home buyers are from other areas of the UK. Our mission is to become the largest and most trusted funded part exchange business in the UK and to help more and more new home buyers realise their new home dream and for housebuilders to deliver the best possible shareholder value. I’m also delighted to say that the very experienced Dave Bexon, previously group sales and marketing director of Redrow and co-founder of smartnewhomes.com, is a non executive director of the business and has helped enormously in developing our strategy. We are on an exciting journey, and I look forward to seeing what the future brings!
