News & Views Blog

British men show their true alpha male colours when buying a home, according to our latest research, which finds males much more aggressive bargain hunters than the nation’s ladies.

Across the UK, women are three times as likely as men to offer the asking price for their home.  In the current market, 17% of women are paying what the vendor is asking, compared to just 5.5% of men.  Men are pushing much harder to secure a deal that suits them.  22% are making offers of 10% or more below the asking price, compared to just 10% of women.

“Women know what they want when searching for a property and they do their homework thoroughly before viewing, which is in stark contrast to their male counterparts. However London’s women seem to fight harder than the average UK female to secure the deal they want.

British males have more of a tendency to decide what they are looking for along the way, consequently viewing more properties than the average female house hunter before finding the one that they want.” 

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Lucia Adams, assistant property editor of The Times, explains what has changed.

The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP) intends to introduce Hips, including a home condition report, from the end of this year.

Mike Ockenden, Director General of AHIPP said:

The fact that Hips will still happen on June 1st is good news for the consumer. A recent survey by an AHIPP member Your Move found that 85 per cent of consumers would welcome the Home Condition Report (HCR) as part of the pack - the Government’s decision to allow the HCR to be voluntary at the start is wholly unnecessary.It is our firm belief that there will be consumer demand for the HCR and it will become mandatory.

Posted by Bronwyn at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Lucia Adams, assistant property editor of The Times, explains what has changed.

Yvette Cooper, the Housing Minister, said that dry run tests on 14,000 home information packs with searches would be required before the home condition report could become mandatory.

Ms Cooper said that the government was looking for a progressive voluntary take-up of the reports. However, she added that the reports would still become mandatory if the industry failed to make a success of them.

Posted by Bronwyn at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Lucia Adams, assistant property editor of The Times, explains what has changed.

The government appears to have scrapped home condition reports after 130 MPs signed a motion in eary July against the packs.

However, there were also concerns there would not have been enough inspectors to cope with demands for the home condition reports. Plans to train 7,500 inspectors are behind schedule: at the end of last month, only 232 inspectors had completed their training.

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Lucia Adams, assistant property editor of The Times, explains what has changed.

Until the government’s U-turn yesterday, home condition reports, akin to a traditional survey, were to be a compulsory part of the new Home Information Packs (Hips). Costing sellers up to £1,000 HIPs, which will be introduced from June next year, also include local authority searches and a property's title deeds.

The Government announced yesterday however that the home condition report - the most expensive part of the pack - would no longer be mandatory.

From June next year, sellers will only be obliged to provide a "half-Hip" at an estimated cost of £150 to £200. This will include local searches, title deeds and an energy performance certificate, which must be introduced under European law.

Hips were supposed to speed up the house buying process, ensure that fewer deals fell through, help first-time buyers and reduce the scope for gazumping.

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From June 2007, all homes in the UK must have an energy efficiency rating before they can be sold. The government says this move, which is in line with European agreements, will help the UK reduce its carbon emissions.

The Energy Performance Certificate will form part of the Home Information Packs, to be introduced next year. Inspectors will evaluate the current and potential energy efficiency of each home, giving a rating from A to G. The report will also list measures the home owner could undertake to improve the rating.

Housing Minister Yvette Cooper said that people should be entitled to have information on energy costs before buying a home, drawing a parallel with the energy ratings available for various white goods such as fridges and boilers. Ms Cooper said,

By providing people with sound advice on how to improve energy efficiency this will help sellers and buyers who want to do their bit to cut carbon emissions as well as cutting their fuel bills too.

Posted by Bronwyn at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), is asking the government to recognise that what is left of HIPs is unworkable now the Home Condition Report (HCR) is not mandatory, and to find other ways of improving the property buying and selling process.  

Peter Bolton King, the Chief Ececutive Officer of the NAEA comments:

Whatever anyone might think about the whole concept of HIPs, it is nonsense to make only part voluntary. The majority of the remaining compulsory documents are, at best, often unnecessary before a sale is agreed and, at worst, unintelligible without legal interpretation or likely to become out of date.

The Government’s stated reason for bringing in HIPS was that if potential purchasers were armed with all the information fewer sales would fall through. However there is little evidence that sales fall through because of legal, title or search problems and as such there is absolutely no need to insist on this information being made available prior to a sale being agreed. Bolton King says,

In any case the advent of quick E Conveyancing removes much of the need for the legal part of a HIP anyway.  The Government should now take the bull by the horns and make the decision to repeal the introduction of HIPs and return to the drawing board. 

According to the NAEA, this leaves the question of the EU requirement for an energy rating certificate. The Government must now urgently agree with Industry who will be carrying out the compulsory energy rating check. This is shortly to be expanded to cover not only houses being sold but also those being rented and commercial properties. The Association supports the idea that there should be a separate stand-alone qualification to cover this and will work with Government to hopefully rapidly bring this about. Qualified Home Inspectors will not be interested in spending their lives doing just this. We believe that the requirement can easily be achieved via accredited Estate Agents at the time they are placing a house on the market.

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British people move home more often than ever before according to new research from propertyfinder.com and are planning for a lifetime of regular relocation.

While the average over 65 year old has moved 5.7 times in their life, spending an average of 9.2 years in each of their homes, the average 41-45 year old has already moved 7 times, spending just four years in each residence.  The 18-25s are the most footloose, having moved more than 3 times since they left the parental home, spending two years on average in each home.

When asked how many more times in their lives they expected to move, those under 30 expected

an average of 6 more home moves, taking their expected lifetime total to 10, almost twice as many as their grandparents.   Those aged 41-45 expected to move another 4.5 times, taking their total to 11.5, and suggesting that the young may even be underestimating their likely moves.

Social change is the key determinant of this trend.  When asked what prompted them to fly the parental nest, 88% of the over 65's did so in order to get married.  This compares to less than 3% of the under 30s in the survey. 53% of the under 30s left home to go to university.  A further 8% did so to set up home with friends, something that none of the over 65's did.

Warren Bright, chief executive officer of propertyfinder.com said:

People now marry and settle down much later than their grandparents and are far more likely to move around as a result.  This trend is due mostly to studies, changes in career patterns, the tendency of young people towards house-sharing and the likelihood of young people having serial relationships before settling down.  Middle aged people have also become much more mobile due to rising divorce rates, the need to release equity to fund retirement and downsizing.

The Treasury, buy-to-let landlords, and estate agents are key beneficiaries of this trend.  Stamp duty on the average home purchase is £2,000 but in London it is a staggering £9,000.  Five home moves in London would therefore bring £45,000 into Gordon Brown’s coffers.

The high level of house prices and the social changes affecting the way young people live (and keep changing homes) will continue to boost demand for rental accommodation.   The private rented sector is bridging the gap between the parental home and the first rung on the property ladder and fuelling the rise of the buy-to-let landlord. Estate agents will profit in both cases, as they provide services to home buyers, sellers and renters alike.

Posted by at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is it better to buy in an up and coming area, or an established sought after area? There is a very interesting article in The Observer that discusses just this issue. Here is an excerpt:

The smart money, according to Ed Mead of Douglas and Gordon estate agency and everyone else we spoke to on the matter, is to buy the shabbiest property in the nicest area you can afford. 'For one very good reason,' adds Mead. 'Your investment will be better hedged. It's frankly better to buy a tiny one-bed flat in Chelsea than a four-bed house in Streatham. The moment the market deteriorates, if you try to sell in Streatham you've got no chance, because it's a 100 per cent domestic market. In Chelsea, the market is 25 per cent domestic and 75 per cent international, so you won't have a problem selling.' 

Posted by Bronwyn at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP) have announced they are committed to the future success of the HIP and are taking confident steps towards their worth.

 AHIPP and its members are in the final stages of planning a regional roll out which will commence in quarter four this year. The objective of the roll out will be to demonstrate the benefits to buyers and sellers of the Home Information Pack and including the voluntary Home Condition Report which relies on the Government enabling the licensing of qualified Home Inspectors, ahead of the mandatory date next June.

Read more on the AHIPP website... 

Posted by Bronwyn at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)