New Perthshire Estate Agent outlines growth targets

Founder-led business focusing on personal approach

A new Perthshire Estate Agency founded on a personal approach aims to build trust and sales in the first 6 months before adding lettings to its offering by 2028/29.

Laurieston Forbes is the brainchild of Auchterarder-based couple Joseph and Melanie Devlin, ex-Police Officers with a combined 16 years of experience who have branched out into new careers since leaving the force.

Now, inspired by their own house moving journeys, and aware of the resilient property market in Perthshire and Stirlingshire, the pair hope to establish the company as a brand with a ‘caring’ USP in the estate agency landscape.

Resilient

The Perth and Kinross housing market is stable with a 0.2% rise in 2025 compared to 2024, and nearly 3000 individual property transactions recorded in that time period, according to Rettie figures.

Some parts of rural Perthshire, including Auchterarder, Dunkeld and Pitlochry, see high value transactions and the marketplace is well known to founder Joseph, who previously worked for a successful estate agency in Perth.

Having taken the plunge themselves, Joseph and Melanie aim to establish the firm’s reputation by developing strong connections with clients based upon the idea that each home has many personal and individual stories.

Following a previous relationship Melanie was effectively homeless for a period of time and it is experiences such as this which have forged their approach, on an understanding of what bricks and mortar can actually mean to people’s lives.

Joseph speaking to followers on the company's Instagram page

Values

“We both love property and have been wanting to work in this world for some time,” explained Joseph, who grew up in Kinross.

“Last November we had the idea to begin this journey. The business is beginning completely from scratch. We don’t have an existing client base and have been focusing on building our awareness and trust to those who are thinking of selling or are ready to sell.

“Our goal in the next 6 months is to get our first set of valuations and sales and working with as many people as we can.”

Trust

Reinforcing the business’ core values, he added: “We want to keep away from the transactional feeling, so will be hoping to work with those who find that's important to them. We'd love to extend to lettings within the next 2 years.

“Success for us will always be measured by whether our clients feedback that they've had a helpful and supportive experience. We've spent our entire working lives helping people and we want that to continue.”

According to Joseph, established sellers in Perth are closing deals on an average of 30 properties per month with strong demand, in particular, for 3/4 bedroom detached or semi-detached homes.

At present, this is an aspiration but one the pair hope to attain, in time.

“We know it can be a lot to trust a new agency, so the initial challenge is building our awareness in a competitive market.”