Lack of HIPs Encourages Home Sellers

18-Jun-2010

Despite rising house prices in many parts of the UK, there is strong evidence from several housing trade bodies to suggest that the abolition of Home Information Packs (HIPs) has boosted house sales.  HIPs were scrapped back in May by the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Housing Minister Grant Shapps. 

While they were in effect, homeowners in England and Wales were legally obliged to spend around 300-350 GBP to buy the controversial packs and use them to provide a variety of information about their home for potential new buyers, including an Energy Performance Certificate, local authority searches, title documents and guarantees.  In his statement, Shapps commented that Housing Minister Grant Shapps said:  "This is a great example of how this new Government is getting straight down to work by cutting away pointless red-tape that is strangling the market. Rather than shelling out hundreds of pounds for nothing in return we're stripping away bureaucracy and letting homeowners sell their properties."

Of course, a greater availability of houses brings no guarantee that mortgages will be available to enable new homebuyers to purchase a property.  There are signs of frustration about this in the recent comment from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML):  "There have been signs that the abolition of home information packs has led to an increase in the supply of property coming onto the market.  The government has said that it continues to support the aspiration of home ownership. But there has been little on how to improve the funding situation."

In the latest UK Housing Market survey by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyers (RICS), 22% of chartered surveyors reported a rise in house prices.  A house price increase has been reported in many areas of the UK, although notable exceptions have been in Northern Ireland, Yorkshire and Humberside and the West Midlands.   

Ian Perry, RICS spokesperson commented "Surveyors are generally confident that sales will continue to pick up over the summer months. The increase in supply as a result of the abolition of HIPs is helping to support this optimism despite continuing concerns about mortgage finance. A higher level of instructions should meanwhile also lead to a flatter trend in house prices in the latter part of the year."

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