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Scrapping of Hips helps to drive property market
13 August 2010
Scrapping of Hips helps to drive property market Housing market activity has doubled since January, mainly because of the abolition of home information packs (Hips) according to LSL Property Services and Academetrics. Housing market transactions increased for the second consecutive month, rose 11 per cent from 64,915 in June to an estimated 72,000 in July, according to the LSL/Academetrics house price index. Average prices over the last three months have remained largely stable, which means the annual price increase during 12 months to July was 8.1 per cent. The average price of a home in England and Wales stood at £220,685 in July. David Brown, commercial director at LSL, said he did not expect a return to the mini-boom of late last year, but believed likelihood of a significant downturn was also small. He said: "Small monthly house price fluctuations are likely to continue in the short-term and there will be considerable regional differences particularly as the coming budget cuts hit some parts of the country worse than others." Dr Peter Williams, housing market specialist and chairman of Acadametrics, said: "Three of the indices published to date report modest price falls in July whilst two - Halifax and LSL/Acadametrics - report modest rises. "This very mixed picture, both in terms of divergent reports for the same month and small positive and negative fluctuations over a series of months, is consistent with a reduced and slowing market with no single strong driver and where unique events such as the abolition of home information packs (Hips), or even changes to stamp duty, can have an undue impact." Dr Williams admitted that we are in a period of considerable uncertainty and at best, the market is likely to continue to remain close to flat. He said: "Despite the underlying imbalance of demand and supply, there is little to suggest that we will see any strong recovery in the housing market in 2010 or, indeed, into 2011." Published by FTAdviser
