The new coalition government of the UK have decided enough is enough and suspended use of the Home Information Packs (HIPs) by home sellers.
There was a lot of skepticism when the HIPs were made law back in 2007. It was very confusing as on the one hand you had home sellers paying upfront several hundred pounds for these Home Information Packs with no guarantee of being able to sell their home; whilst on the other hand potential property buyers ended up gathering the same information to satisfy the requirements of their mortgage lender. It appears that common sense has now prevailed.
So what next for the UK housing market? Well, it means that sellers don’t have to pay upfront for these packs and it enables them to test the market without this extra cost. The National Association of Estate Agents are happy with the decision; however the biggest beneficiaries should be the private house sale websites. It should be encouraging news not only the existing property listing websites, but also potential new entrants to the arena giving consumers a wider range of choice something that has been championed of late by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). It may also allow potential house sellers to try out an alternative approach to the traditional estate agents.
The hope is that the removal of the HIPs will not only get rid of needless red tape bureaucracy, but will now help to kick-start the housing market.
