NAEA launches attack on Hips
Wednesday, 19 December 2007 12:00 AM
The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has called government research into the implementation of home information packs (Hips) into question.
On November 22nd the government published research by Dr Peter Williams of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU), which argued it found "no evidence of any impact on transactions or prices" from the introduction of Hips.
The government used this evidence as the basis for its decision to continue the rollout of Hips, introducing them to all properties sold in England and Wales on December 14th, arguing "further delay could cause greater uncertainties".
However, the validity of this research has now been questioned by the NAEA.
"The main conclusion is that there was no evidence to show that Hips were affecting transactions or prices and the market slow-up was due to the economic and financial situation," said NAEA president Stewart Lilly.
"However, it was accepted that Hips must have had some effect, although it is really too early to be certain. This begs the question of how a decision to proceed can therefore be made."
The NAEA also argued the rollout of the scheme had not gone smoothly.
Hips were introduced for properties with four bedrooms or more on August 1st, three-bedroom properties on September 10th and finally to all homes earlier this month.
It was initially planned the scheme would rollout to all properties simultaneously, but this was proved impossible after a shortage of energy inspectors emerged.
"As we stated after the last piece of spin, how can the term 'smooth rollout' be used when [housing minister Yvette Cooper] has had to accept the time taken for local searches is very patchy and certain water companies are taking weeks to produce water searches," argued Mr Lilly.
Finally the NAEA also maintains it is somewhat ludicrous to say Hips will speed up the house buying process if much of the required information is not available and many conveyancers are not accepting the local search.
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