HIPs rolled out to all homes from December
November 30, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Mortgages
The controversial Home Information Packs that are currently required for homes of three bedrooms or more that are being marketed for sale in England and Wales will not be rolled out to all other properties, according to reports.
When Home Information Packs or HIPs were brought in earlier this year they were applied to homes of four bedrooms or more. This was then switched to homes of three bedrooms or more several months ago. And now, according to the report, the government has announced that HIPs will be required for all properties being marketed for sale in England and Wales.
The HIPs will come into force for all properties going up for sale from December 14th, which means that any residential property in England or Wales that goes up for sale from this date will need to have a Home Information Pack. However, various statistics have revealed that HIPs may not be having the impact that the government had hoped, and for the first time since they were introduced the government has admitted that these packs may have adversely affected the housing market.
According to a report released by the Housing Minister Yvette Cooper HIPs had impacted on people putting their properties up for sale, causing delays in people deciding to sell their homes. Another report from Europe Economics showed that HIPs had not sped up home purchase transactions by providing more required information to buyers, which is something that ministers had claimed that HIPs would do.
A statement following this study read: ‘Hips may have had an additional modest-but-material effect on listings activity but no discernable impact on transactions, mortgages or prices.’ Surveyors now state that the introduction of HIPs for all properties may results in a drop in the number of starter homes coming onto the market for sale.
Tom Smith
30th November 2007
