House prices about to rise?

Sellers packs, sans the building surveyor's report, will be compulsory from June.

I stand corrected, thought I'd heard in the news mmaybe 6 months ago that the govt had abandoned the compulsery? Throw that to someone? Interesting if its true and may be a decision to be made regard one of our houses!!

they took out the surveyors report and made the rest compulsory.

With just under eight weeks to go until the mandatory roll-out of Home Information Packs (HIPs), only 20% of consumers have seen the Governments adverts intended to inform consumers of their arrival on 1 June, according to a survey"

...you would be in the 80% then :-)

Sellers packs are are a complete joke. In the name of the environment sellers will be forced to produces fat reports full or worthless or blindingly obvious information. They say the cost of ~ 400uk pds is not much compared to the price of a house. But it is yet another upfront (and needless) cost. Like the survey which told me there is a petrol station close the the flat I was going to purchase. Genius.

Another example of governments ability to piss away other peoples money on patronising and useless projects.

There are bigger factors driving the market. Sellers packs are just another pain in the arse which adds more aggravation to an already aggravated process.

It is very easy to disentangle the change in insolvency rules from the trend. Insolvency rules did not change in Scotland, but the number of insolvencies increased by pretty much the same amount. Therefore, the rule change had no effect on insolvency rates.

Article in last Saturday's guardian about how to do your own pack for about £200. The energy bit will cost you about £100 to do and seems the biggest pile of pants ever.

Unless they quality check your home using draft tests, IR cameras etc then it's only the information you'd be able to find out yourself. Doh, does it have loft insulation? I'll look in the loft? Does it have cavity wall insulation? I'll have a look for any tell tale marks.. Does it have double glazing? Doh I might not be able to tell that one all on my own. Does it have underfloor insulation? Well I'd have to look wouldn't I?

Would any of those things put people off? Probably not? insisting on actually checking new houses are built right and meet the targets that are set for drafts etc, checking the quality of instalation of double glazing would make more difference imo.

There was something on the local news a while back where they looked at new builds and did some bizarre draft test. they all failed but its ok as there's never been a prosecution for not meeting the regulations anyway.

There should be more done to get all houses insulated properly and not just look at those that get sold.

I don't think this will be the thing that affects house prices. If you've seen the number of landlords jumping in and buying properties round here then you'd have to assume that's keeping the prices artifically high. They're after £600 a month rent for a house you can rent off the council for half that. So when job losses get worse HB will be paying masses of money into the pockets of private landlords rather than putting the money into the government's (limited) housing stock.

anyway you know the url for house price crash site I'm sure.

and they'd be correct; it's 0.2%.

Yep. Many things are 'cheap compared to the price of a house'.

That doesn't necessarily make them 'cheap', though..and certainly not good value..!

I have my bucket of tar and feathers at the ready TW :)

"Some suggest the long predicted crash could finally be on the cards."

they would no doubt be the same 'some' that have been predicting it "within a few months", or saying its even happening 'now', for years.

I wouldnt be surprised if there was an HPC. I'll just be surprised if anyone forecasts it. (Forecasts from people who just mutter 'there will be an HPC' year in year out, dont count, unless the fall takes the prices below the point that they were at when they *started* to chant their mantra. For BGB, at a guess, that means he'd need a 20% fall? For others, maybe a 50% fall >> to even get a starting point.

and they'd be missing the point. people who are tire kickers wont spend 400 ona whim.

I didnt realise you could do the packs yourself, I assumed you'd have to have some sort of accreditation. That makes them even more worthless than I thought.

Of course, there are lots of things you *could* do yourself that the majority still spend a lot more than 400 on , so that also wont work

I didnt say that the tar in my bucket would solidify waiting for the expected before I could put them to use!

By rights it should be solidifying on your body by now :-)

people who are tyre kickers aren't committed to buying houses either......

They are the ones who are responsible for many house sales failing to exchange. Forcing them out of the market is a good thing, but the industry and the gullible are, naturally, pre-empting any house price decline and blaming HIPs.

Daytona

decline?I think (and from what I've read so do most others) that HIPs will cause a rise, not a decline. We should know in 6 months. I'd expect to see an increase in houses on the market in the next couple of monts, followed by a bigger than usual fall over the summer.

I was thinking the same thing.

tim

It is just collating information, to do a pack yourself you will still spend around 250 quid getting things like the environmental survey, searches etc done.