The
housing market in England and Wales will fall further out of reach
for first-time-buyers if Home Information Packs (HIPs) are rolled
out to one and two bedroom properties, says the Royal Institution
of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Since being introduced
on August 1, HIPs have contributed to the reduction in supply
of properties coming onto the housing market as new instructions
to sell have all but dried up.
Already mandatory for three bed and larger properties, HIPs have
wiped out a significant portion of the estimated 20% of speculative
sellers that help to keep the property market moving.
A RICS member survey on the impact of HIPs shows the number of
three bed and larger properties coming onto the market in October
has dropped across England and Wales compared with the same month
in 2006.
Sixty-seven percent of respondents indicated a decrease in three
bedroom or larger properties coming onto the market, with only
11% of respondents indicating an increase.
Respondents who recorded a fall found, on average, that new instructions
to sell fell by 26%. Significantly, new instructions to sell
on those properties not requiring a HIP fell by only 6%.
The worst-affected areas were the South West (-75.9%) and the
West Midlands (-72.2%) with substantially more Chartered Surveyors
indicating a fall than a rise in new instructions for homes with
three or more bedrooms.
RICS estimates around 300,000 properties are marketed each year
by sellers ‘testing the water’ to find out what their property
might fetch on the open market.
RICS spokesperson, Jeremy Leaf, said:
“With prospective buyers and sellers currently taking a ‘wait
and see’ approach to moving, activity in the housing market is
grinding to a halt. The Housing Minister needs to understand
that rolling HIPs out to one and two bed properties could find
first-time-buyers caught between a rock and a hard place as accessibility**
to the market would go off the scale.
“ Lack of smaller properties for purchase will force first-time-buyers
to remain in the lettings market where rents are already climbing
at the fastest pace in over eight years.
“If the Housing Minister genuinely wants to improve the plight
of first-time-buyers, she should not continue with this flawed
policy.”
Source: RICS |
