The Scottish Property Podcast

He built a short term let business to 70 units and 20 staff — then walked away at 29 to start from scratch. The very next day he went to view a hotel. 🏨

In this episode of the Scottish Property Podcast, Nick and Steven sit down with Laurence Malyon — founder of Moment aparthotel brand — for one of the most wide-ranging conversations they've had on the show. Laurence covers everything from running concerts for the neighbours at age 5 and rebranding his family's fire suppression business at 15, to building Donnini Apartments with his uni flatmate Jake, exiting after seven years, and launching a hospitality brand that just did a £2.325 million deal on Edinburgh's George IV Bridge.

This one is packed with lessons on business partnerships, aparthotel strategy, STL licensing, commercial funding, and why Glasgow and Edinburgh are completely different beasts.

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Welcome back to Laurence & what he's been building since
01:08 – Exiting Donnini & launching Moment hotel brand the very next day
01:58 – Growing up in a rundown farmhouse near Beattock
02:59 – The family fire suppression business
03:36 – Rebranding the family business at 15
05:15 – Why London and Dubai are the real competition
07:41 – Running concerts for the neighbours at age 5
09:01 – Selling fruit and veg to teachers for profit
10:39 – First flip at uni with Jake
13:47 – Discovering Airbnb as it was becoming a thing
14:10 – Touchstone / Progressive property training
16:59 – The rent to rent model that started it all
17:26 – STL legislation: why serviced accommodation is so much harder now
19:40 – Planning consent: licences, planning, or both
28:45 – The plan to go beyond Edinburgh and Glasgow
33:25 – Becky, the business conversation that changed everything
34:22 – The Moment trademark — what it means and why he owns it
35:00 – 12 George IV Bridge Edinburgh — the flagship deal
38:07 – £2.325 million on practical completion
39:39 – RBS as main lender — the journey to get there
40:22 – Oak North bank and how they got funding over the line
47:28 – First hire CJ — building the team
50:00 – Remote team in the Philippines
52:41 – 18% management fee — how it's structured
59:01 – Sonder went bust: lessons from the big operators
1:01:18 – Stay Cool: what the brand offers and why it's different
1:03:40 – Expansion plans: Lisbon, Paris and beyond

CONNECT WITH LAURENCE
Moment Aparthotels: momentstays.com
@moment.stays on Instagram

NETWORKING EVENTS
First Wednesday of every month
📍 Aberdeen | Dundee | Edinburgh | Glasgow
Follow our socials for speakers and details

SPONSORED BY
Prime Property Auctions — earn £1,500 just for sending a WhatsApp. If you know someone selling a property, John and Lewis will pay you £1,500 or 1% of the sale price (whichever is higher) just for passing on their details. They've paid out over £350,000 in referral fees so far.
👉 https://primepropertyauctions.co.uk/

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👍 Like if you found this valuable
💬 Would you have walked away from 70 units to start again? Drop it in the comments 👇

Pension funds are quietly buying up rental homes across Scotland. If buy-to-let was dying, nobody told them. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Nick and Steven are back with the June market update — running on two hours sleep after Scotland vs Brazil — covering the Prime Minister change, house prices, the rental market, the LHA rate freeze that's about to hit 45,000 households, and a £10.8 million build to rent deal in Edinburgh backed by your pension fund. Yes, yours.

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Intro: Scotland vs Brazil, two hours sleep, six episodes to record
01:25 – What's coming up: PM change, house prices, rents, LHA & build to rent
01:50 – House prices & rental market overview
01:58 – Local housing allowance — why it matters to landlords
02:36 – Build to rent & pension funds flooding into Scottish property
03:27 – Keir Starmer resigns — what happened
04:18 – Andy Burnham likely next PM — and his history with rent freezes
04:28 – Rent controls in England: why Scotland is one step ahead
05:21 – Capital gains tax: what a new Labour leader could mean for landlords
14:20 – Fred Harrison's 18-year cycle — five months left for the 2026 crash prediction
15:36 – SpaceX IPO: Elon Musk becomes a trillionaire
20:01 – First Home Fund launched this week — will it empty in days again?
21:56 – Land Registry data: Scotland up 2.2%
23:57 – Bitcoin at $59k — down 50% from its peak
31:15 – LHA rate freeze: 87 of 90 regions can't cover the bottom 30% of rents
34:30 – Scotland's discretionary housing payment — sticking plaster or real solution?
35:52 – 45,000 households and 31,000 children affected
35:57 – Scotland puts in £8.7m in support
36:43 – Avant Homes sells 41 Edinburgh homes to Thriving Investments for £10.8m
37:52 – £263k per home — and who's actually funding it
38:19 – Is mid-market rent exempt from rent controls? The question nobody can answer

NETWORKING EVENTS
First Wednesday of every month
📍 Aberdeen | Dundee | Edinburgh | Glasgow
Follow our socials for speakers and details

SPONSORED BY
Prime Property Auctions — earn £1,500 just for sending a WhatsApp. If you know someone selling a property, John and Lewis will pay you £1,500 or 1% of the sale price (whichever is higher) just for passing on their details. They've paid out over £350,000 in referral fees so far.
👉 https://primepropertyauctions.co.uk/

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss a market update
👍 Like if you found this valuable
💬 Do you think pension funds investing in rental property proves buy-to-let still works? Drop it in the comments 👇

He had $300 to his name, sleeping on a mate's floor in Perth, Australia. Then a stranger in an empty pub changed everything — and 23 years later he owns 46 properties and manages 800 more. 🏠

In this episode of the Scottish Property Podcast, Nick and Steven sit down with David Lamb — founder of Orange Sales and Lettings in the North East of England. David's journey takes in steelworks apprenticeships, delivering tea bags with a wicker basket, a commercial conversion that doubled in cost during Covid, backpacking through Southeast Asia on passive income, and a chance meeting with a stranger in a pub that got him his first offshore job.

This one's got everything — the crashes, the lessons, the laughs, and a masterclass on building a letting agency from zero to nearly 1,000 properties under management.

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Welcome & David's story in numbers
01:01 – Growing up in Billingham, Teesside
01:36 – Private school, kicked out, and finding his feet
03:01 – Walking out on his business teacher after 6 weeks
04:19 – Delivering tea bags door to door with a wicker basket
07:17 – First flip: bought for £52k, made £26k, slept on the floor
10:13 – The 2008 crash — and two new builds he'd just completed on
11:39 – Why new builds off plan was his biggest property mistake
15:03 – Zero knowledge of leverage — the lightbulb moment
16:46 – 46 personal properties: the buy to let foundation
17:05 – Converting 17 offices into 11 apartments
22:44 – Made redundant from the steelworks
23:30 – Backpacking Australia & Southeast Asia
23:51 – $300 left, Perth, and an empty pub
24:29 – The stranger who bought him a pint and changed his life
25:21 – Email Paul Gordon — one message, one offshore career
29:53 – Earning offshore and feeling passive income for the first time
32:33 – Rich Dad Poor Dad, all the books, and going property shopping
34:58 – The 17-office business centre: bought for £450k
35:24 – Covid hits — £450k becomes £750k
37:10 – Starting Orange from a portacabin on site
47:04 – First hire Charlotte — and building the team
49:37 – First agency acquisition
51:01 – Asset purchases vs share purchases explained
51:48 – How David structures every agency deal
51:54 – The deal that'll take Orange over 1,000 properties
53:22 – Why relationships are the real currency in business
54:09 – David's sole role at Orange now: buying agencies
1:00:15 – Business rates, national insurance & the real costs of running a team
1:00:25 – AI in property management — what David is integrating right now
1:03:44 – Why AI will never replace emotions in property
1:05:44 – The bank conversion: planning, apartments & serviced accommodation
1:07:07 – Wrap up & Marbella plans

CONNECT WITH DAVID
@davidlambproperty on Instagram

NETWORKING EVENTS
First Wednesday of every month
📍 Aberdeen | Dundee | Edinburgh | Glasgow
Follow our socials for speakers and details

SPONSORED BY
Prime Property Auctions — earn £1,500 just for sending a WhatsApp. If you know someone selling a property, John and Lewis will pay you £1,500 or 1% of the sale price (whichever is higher) just for passing on their details. They've paid out over £350,000 in referral fees so far.
👉 https://primepropertyauctions.co.uk/

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode
👍 Like if you found this valuable
💬 Would you have sent that email to Paul Gordon? Drop it in the comments 👇

A complicated miscarriage. A goodbye in a hospital room. Two years of everything going wrong. Then they bought their first property — Claire eight months pregnant, the world in lockdown. 🏠

In this episode of the Scottish Property Podcast, Nick and Steven sit down with Claire and Dan MacDonald of Cladan Property — a husband and wife team who started investing in 2020 with no strategy and a sold car, and have quietly built a portfolio of 24 properties in five years.

This one isn't about overnight success. It's about a slow, steady, intentional approach — two young kids, a teaching job, a brand new mortgage advisory business, and a portfolio that's just gone through its biggest and most challenging growth phase yet.

🕐 TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Welcome to Claire and Dan
02:02 – Growing up in the Highlands & how they met
06:39 – The honeymoon that sparked the business idea
07:54 – One-day property events & the financial advisor who said don't bother
14:05 – Claire's teaching career & the stress behind it
17:59 – The difficult years: loss of Dan's mum
24:26 – The complicated miscarriage & why it changed everything
00:20 – Claire starts investing eight months pregnant in lockdown
19:06 – First deal: analysis paralysis & what pushed them through
19:14 – Analysis paralysis & the first purchase
21:23 – Releasing equity to fund deals three and four
22:07 – Selling the car to fund the second property
32:13 – Working with Jillian and Darren Green — mindset & clarity
33:36 – The vision: cash flow number, lifestyle goals & what they're building toward
34:36 – Dan's civil engineering background & the move into property
39:11 – The pivot to short-term lets & the Highland cottage
41:04 – The cottage flat STL in Cardonald
41:14 – 8 months to get the STL licence — what they learned
43:26 – Winter cash flow struggles & the unpredictability of STL
43:40 – The Joseph Todd liquidation post & what it meant for the market
49:25 – Speaking at the April networking event — how it led to two portfolio deals
49:31 – Direct to vendor: the portfolio acquisitions that changed everything
53:31 – Tenanted portfolio — when the cracks started appearing
55:59 – Butting heads as a couple & how they're working through it
1:00:56 – Dan's mortgage advisory business & where to find them

🔑 KEY TOPICS
✅ Starting a property portfolio with savings, a sold car & family equity
✅ The real challenges of buying a tenanted portfolio — what nobody talks about
✅ ADS savings through portfolio deals of 6+ properties
✅ Short-term lets: the cash flow highs, the winter lows & the licensing uncertainty
✅ How speaking at a networking event led to two direct-to-vendor portfolio deals
✅ Balancing a marriage, young kids, teaching and a growing property business
✅ When to pay someone to project manage a refurb (and when their fee pays for itself)
✅ Why Claire and Dan prefer quality and cash flow over chasing numbers

📲 CONNECT WITH CLAIRE & DAN
Instagram: @cladanproperty
Mortgage enquiries: reach out via Dan's Instagram

📅 NETWORKING EVENTS
First Wednesday of every month
📍 Aberdeen | Dundee | Edinburgh | Glasgow
Follow our socials for speakers and details

🤝 SPONSORED BYPrime Property Auctions — know someone selling a property? You could earn £1,500 just for making an introduction. John and Lewis handle everything from the first call to the sale. Over £350,000 in referral fees paid out so far.👉 https://primepropertyauctions.co.uk/

🎙️ ABOUT SCOTTISH PROPERTY PODCAST
Real conversations with real Scottish property investors. No fluff — just honest stories, market updates, and investor journeys.

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode
👍 Like if you found this valuable
💬 Are you investing as a couple? Drop your experience in the comments 👇

He owns 12 properties. He lives in his mate's spare room. And he accidentally bought a Chinese restaurant from an airport while flying back from Japan.

🏠 In this episode of the Scottish Property Podcast, Nick and Steven sit down with Isaac Cross — a former offshore worker and CERN technician who saved £140k, came off the Scottish Property Podcast course in January, and went all in on property faster than almost anyone they've had on the show.

This one is raw, honest and genuinely funny. Isaac doesn't just talk about the wins. He talks about the bridging nightmare on five properties at once, the deals he overpaid for, the sourcing fees that didn't add up, the solicitor with 98 problems to solve — and what he'd do differently if he was starting again.

🕐 TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Welcome to Isaac Cross & the 52 properties in 52 weeks goal
02:04 – Growing up between Aberdeen and Lanarkshire with a single mum
04:35 – ADHD diagnosis as a kid — and how it shapes the way Isaac works
05:21 – Wanting to go offshore like his dad
06:28 – Electrical apprenticeship & how he was the only one who applied
10:55 – Life offshore: earning £90k in his early 20s
16:20 – Moving to Switzerland for the CERN job
16:29 – The best job title, the most boring job
18:59 – First property: Holytown two-bed at 20
21:14 – Bad mortgage advice, blowing the profit, starting over
26:16 – The power of a good power team
33:24 – The Dennistoun flat — bought at home report in peak Covid
35:04 – Social media, personal brand & why Isaac went all in on content
36:38 – The January networking event that flipped the switch
44:04 – First deal in Aberdeen on a plane to Australia
52:07 – Five properties on one bridge — and 98 problems to solve
60:19 – The Chinese restaurant accident
62:53 – Bidding at auction from Heathrow flying back from Japan
66:45 – The community hub plan for the Carluke commercial unit
71:55 – First private investor on board & what comes next

🔑 KEY TOPICS
✅ How Isaac went from zero to 12 properties in 3 months
✅ Bridging five properties at once — the fees, the problems, the lessons
✅ Why cheap Aberdeen stock served a purpose but he'd do it differently now
✅ Sourcing fees that don't add up — and how to spot them
✅ Accidentally buying commercial property at auction
✅ Building a private investor relationship from scratch
✅ Why social media is already bringing the right people to Isaac
✅ His honest advice to anyone thinking about starting

📲 CONNECT WITH ISAAC
Follow Isaac's property journey on Instagram — @isaaccrossproperty

📅 NETWORKING EVENTS
First Wednesday of every month
📍 Aberdeen | Dundee | Edinburgh | GlasgowFollow our socials for speakers and details

🎙️ ABOUT SCOTTISH PROPERTY PODCAST
Real conversations with real Scottish property investors. No fluff — just honest stories, market updates, and investor journeys.

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode
👍 Like if you found this valuable
💬 Would you have bought the Chinese restaurant? Drop it in the comments 👇