'The stress was making me physically sick'

"I have never been so stressed in my life. This is my second move in the last three years and the stress was actually making me physically sick," says Mr Philip Cawley, a DJ with Today FM who is currently in the process of relocating from a three-bedroom house in Lucan to a four-bedroom house in Avoca, Co Wicklow.

When it comes to moving house, things never quite go according to plan. "I thought I could get a bunch of mates together and a van, but then I couldn't dovetail the sale of my property with the date I could move into my new house, so there was a gap of 10 days between the two properties," he says. "What should have taken four weeks has taken eight weeks."

Phoning Cronin Movers and watching the removal men load everything into the van was "like an enormous weight had been lifted", he adds, and worth the €600 plus VAT the service cost him. "They say the secret to successful management is in delegation. I won't even be there when the furniture comes out of storage, because I can't get another day off work. But they will go into the house and put stuff where I want it. I've put labels on the boxes," he says.

Mr Cawley managed to hire a solicitor for a fee of 0.75 per cent of the sale of his home and the price of his new home and also received discounts on the usual auctioneer's fee of 1.5 per cent plus VAT.

He took the opportunity of moving house to switch mortgage lenders from Irish Permanent to Bank of Scotland, with mortgage approval secured by brokers at the Acorn Group within 10 days.

"There was a €750 land registry fee, which I completely forgot about. Then I had to pay one day's interest when closing the mortgage. They don't make it easy for you," he says.

So why is he moving? "Quality of life," he answers. "I can now drive to Wicklow town in the morning and have a cup of coffee, then get the train into work and be stress-free getting out at Connolly Station."

Mr Cawley hosts the afternoon shift on Today FM, on air from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. "From Lucan, it was 9.8 miles into Today FM, but it took an hour and 10 minutes on some occasions," he says.

"People usually move house twice in their life. I imagine this will be my last move, but if I do move again, I would say I'd be better able to manage it."