Before moving, Barry was living in a 2-bedroom semi-detached bungalow in Norfolk. Although happy with where
he lived, Barry wanted to move back to Kent to be closer to his family and where he grew up.
In March 2023, after a quick google search, he came across House Exchange. He registered for an account and
quickly started to look for a home swap. Barry described House Exchange as a user friendly and brilliant platform, with everything he needed being available. Soon after registering, he started a conversation with a lady in Kent,
and after visits to each other's properties, they agreed they would be happy to exchange homes with each other.
Both parties started the mutual exchange process with their housing associations; Barry said that his soon-to-be
landlord was very efficient with all the paperwork, however there were some delays with his own landlord.
In September, the moving date was agreed! Barry explained how stress-free and straight forward his moving day
was. Both parties used the same removal company, which started off by taking the lady’s belongings from Kent to Norfolk, where they unloaded her boxes, and replaced these with Barry’s. The removal van then drove back to
Kent, and by the time Barry had arrived at his new bungalow, the removal company had already placed all his
boxes inside, ready for him to unpack.
Barry is now so happy to be living near his family again in the area he has always loved; it feels so much more like
home. When asked how life has been since his move, Barry replied with ‘I’m living the life.’
What Barry has to say:
“After moving to Norfolk from Kent in 1988, I decided a few years ago that it was time to move back to Kent to be nearer to relatives. To this end I joined several exchange sites but had no luck. Then I found the House exchange site, so I contacted a lady in Kent.
As soon as we looked at each other's properties we knew we wanted to swap. We submitted our papers, and I have to say that it was the most user friendly and pleasant site to deal with. Clarion were always ahead of the game, but in all fairness, Saffron were in the middle of relocating to new headquarters, so some delay was perfectly understandable. All in all, both parties are more than happy with their respective moves, and I would have no hesitation in recommending this site to anybody seeking a mutual exchange.”
