With around 30% of Scotland’s housing stock consisting of traditional tenements, modern apartment blocks and other flatted buildings, along with modern housing developments which typically include shared common areas, our industry impacts how the many residents of these properties enjoy their homes and communities.

At PMAS, our mission is to drive improvements in the standard of factoring services provided to the homeowners of Scotland and we are proud of the great work our members carry out to deliver these essential services to the highest standards.

To many homeowners, property factoring can appear a complex and confusing subject. There are legal conditions to understand, neighbourly relationships to navigate, financial issues to overcome and increasing complexity of regulation and building construction to understand and engage with.

To the new homeowner, buying their first property in a multi-ownership building, or the down-sizer who moves to a newly built house with shared landscaped areas, play park or other features, interactions with your property factor can come with many questions, maybe some concerns and often uncertainty or unfamiliarity.

In Scotland, such homeowners are fortunate to be served by a high-performing and well regulated industry, staffed by many hard-working and dedicated people who can help guide you through this landscape.

Enquiries will be met by a friendly and well-informed person who will have the answers to many of the questions you may have been worrying about and the homeowner will leave these conversations more confident in dealing with their common obligations and with the comfort that a supportive and knowledgeable team are available to help them.

What this homeowner may not realise is that there is no formal requirement for their property factor to hold a professional qualification or accreditation to factor their property.

Despite the absence of a mandatory requirement for such a qualification, for many years our industry has invested greatly in the training and development of our people to ensure the highest level of service is delivered, by knowledgeable and credible colleagues.

Indeed, since the launch to the Scottish Property Factoring Diploma by the Property Institute, more than 70 colleagues throughout our industry have studied for and passed the exam, gaining this respected qualification and demonstrating the pro-active approach of our businesses and people.

PMAS are proud to have contributed to the development and promotion of this qualification to accredit and demonstrate the excellent service delivered by our people and industry, with more delegates undertaking this qualification all the time.

To further recognize the high standards delivered every day, we are looking forward to our 3^rd annual Excellence Awards in 2025, when we will take some time to reflect on the hard work carried out for our customers and to celebrate the achievements of our colleagues and the independent contractors and service suppliers relied upon to keep our customers properties well-maintained.

We look ahead with enthusiasm to continuing to advocate for the ongoing education and improvement of our people and to celebrating the great work being carried out every day for homeowners throughout Scotland.