Sellers pile in to avoid hip deadline

The numbers of new properties coming onto the market over the Easter holidays suggests that as expected there is going to be a rush of houses coming to the market. The additional volume of property taken with anecdotal evidence form agents suggests that the rush to beat the introduction of HiPs on 1st June says Henry Pryor, property expert and founder of Primemove.com.

Primemove.com sees over 90% of all property that comes to the market and early indications for the last two weeks suggests that the number of new homes coming to the market is up 13% on the same time last year. “Easter is always a time when a lot of new property comes to the market” says Pryor. “Traditionally we would expect around 210,000 properties to come onto the market in the month of April but we are already well ahead and it looks like we can expect a record month. Good news for buyers who have been looking for months but it would seem that many sellers are keen to beat the 1st June introduction of the ill conceived Home Information Packs. With many estate agents now encouraging vendors to commence the marketing of their property before this arbitrary deadline we can expect even more to do so over the next six weeks.

“The Sellers Pack PR machine is already working hard at damage limitation trying to convince a skeptical public and industry that enough novice Energy Inspectors will have been rushed through the new training schemes set up at the eleventh hour. Remember, every house will require an energy certificate before it is marketed at a cost of about £500 each. Half of them will never be used as the houses won’t be sold. A waste of over £150 million a year.

“For the fledgling HiP industry preparing to earn millions from this waste of energy, we can expect more hot air as they try to convince estate agents and hard pressed home owners already paying extortionate stamp duty charges and other moving costs that this latest direct cost is in fact all in their interest and not just jobs for the boys!”