AHIPP refutes latest HIP survey as hype

In response to the latest NAEA survey on Home Information Packs (HIPs), which suggests that HIPs have had an adverse impact on the market, AHIPP is calling on the industry to demand facts not fiction.

Paul Broadhead, Deputy Director General, Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP) commented: “It is not surprising that the NAEA’s latest survey has highlighted, yet again, that agents want HIPs to be abandoned. The NAEA has made its negative position on packs very clear and as a result its blaming of any market disturbance on their introduction is highly predictable, forming an obvious part of its futile campaign to get packs scrapped.

“Instead of making judgement on the anecdotal feedback from 1,000 of the NAEA’s members, I would urge Government and the industry to rely on hard facts. For example, in the Halifax House Price Index issued today, house prices fell 0.5% in October, continuing the ‘steady downward trend experienced since the end of 2006’. Its index makes no reference to HIPs and with the packs not introduced until August this year, provides a clear indicator that packs are not the reason for the current slowing in the market.

“With the ongoing credit squeeze, the first run on a bank since the depression and three interest rate rises since the beginning of the year it is not surprising that the market has experienced some turbulence. I do not accept that a charge of roughly £300 for a HIP will really stop someone deciding to sell their property. The Government now needs to take the essential next step and extend HIPs to the entire market so that consumers can begin to realise the positive changes they have been implemented to achieve.”