Savills: Hips have had no impact on gazumping

The government's home information pack (Hip) scheme has had little or no impact on gazumping, according to Savills.

The documents were introduced during 2007, being finally rolled out on December 14th for all properties, with the ambition the increasing stability in the market.

However, this has not been the case, according to the estate agent.

"I don't think Hips have made any difference at all, because I don't think people are referring to Hips in any way, shape or form. If Hips were to have a condition survey then they might have had an impact – but they haven't," explained Lucian Cook, director of residential research for Savills.

"They tend to just have slowed up the process for a number of vendors. And buyers just still aren't using them – they're much more reliant upon their surveyor's report than anything else."

Gazumping occurs when a prospective house buyer is pushed out of the deal just before the exchange of contracts, due to a new, lower offer from another seller being accepted by the buyer.

However, there are few winners if this occurs.

"I don't think it's a particularly helpful practice to be perfectly honest. There are risks that the buyers won't get the mortgage valuation that they're anticipating, and therefore find it more difficult to get mortgage finance, which results in them dropping their price at the last minute," said Mr Cook.

"Equally, as there is prolonged negative sentiment and news coming out [of the industry], that will affect some people's view as to whether or not they're paying the market price."

Chris O'Toole