HIPS kill UK housing market

Forget the credit crunch, it’s not that which has killed the UK housing market, it’s blasted HIPS, pure and simple.

For the uneducated - HIPS, Home Information Pack

Now, I am not a cynic by nature, but isn’t the whole HIPS thing is nothing more than a money making scheme for Her Majesty’s Government?

I have no doubt that HIPS have been a major factor in the recent current collapse of the housing market. Yes a lot of people are hurting because they are coming off of cheap mortgages, but people need to realise we have been in a boom period and that like anything all good things must come to an end.

Why do we need hips?

A hip consists of a sale statement, local search information and evidence of title. A HIP also includes an Energy Performance Certificate which contains advice on reducing CO₂ emissions and utility bills.

What utter garbage, here is what the main site say about HIPS: HIPS could save you money, time and stress.

If anything the cost of getting a HIP done is more likely to increase stress.

The British people have not bought into HIPS, they are just another layer of bureacracy which we can do without. The credit crunch is the easy excuse from the goverment, but HIPS have not helped the housing market in the slightest.

New Homes Blog

HIPS

Homeowners face total meltdown

If you believe the hype home owners are indeed facing total meltdown, why? Easy………

• Mortgage rates are going up
• The banks have no spare cash
• Oil prices are on the up
• Food prices are on the up

Yes folks we are going to hell in a handcart. Personally speaking I don’t buy all the doom and gloom. There are still plenty of people sitting on a great deal of cash after all we have just come out of a ‘Boom’ period.

This is the element that concerns me, where has all the money gone? Yes it has been a period of spend, spend, spend, but who is looking is after all the cash that has been spent?

If as we are led to believe there is no money left in any pots then people have been very wreck less and have only themselves to blame.

Surely the banks and lenders such as Barclays, Nat West, HSBC, Halifax and Nationwide knew this was coming, of course they did, they are passing their bad management onto us.

Any household should look to have six months of reserve funds in place at the very least. Then at the very worst case scenario should all go wrong there is funding available for those rainy days which by all accounts are going to be pouring on us very soon!

So what is left for us? One word…….. EMIGRATE. According to one blog the National Office of Statistics has released figures stating that 2m Brits have left our shores in the last 10 years.

Emigration sounds like a great idea - but then you have the catch 22 situation - who at the moment is going to buy your home? After all there’s no money!

See the full blog on Emigration statistics at Land and Brand New Homes.

Buying a New Home, Not For The Feint of Heart

The housing market is never stable, its always on a massive increase and estate agents tell you ‘buy quick so you get a good price and the value will rise!’, or a decrease where estate agents tell you ‘buy quick while prices are so low you’ll get a good price and value will rise!’.

Unsurprisingly the first rule of buying a house is never listen to your estate agent’s financial advice.

At the moment, we are on one of those steep declines, actually, to be more specific we’re right at the pinicle of one of those steep declines. Everyone knows that its going to happen, but no one really knows when (much as they might speculate to the contrarty), so we are teetering on the very edge, which is almost the only situation in which estate agents cant tell you ‘its a great time to buy’ - and they hate that, so think of a hundred different reasons why it is a good time to buy, most of them so absurd its to a level where you don’t actually question it (thats what they want). For example, ‘well the sun is shining and it looks like there might be rain later so I’d say mr and mrs johnson that this is the perfect house for you, what time would you like me to make your offer to the owner?’

But

They will ofcourse gloss over all the minor details that don’t really matter, you know, things like the foundation needing to be reset, a 1823B.C. well buried in the garden that is protected by all sorts of conservation societies, the bath that leaks through to the living room which you can’t see now cause its just had a fresh coat of paint, and the front door which doesnt actually lock because the hinges pop out from time to time. All things that you become painfully aware of in the first week after you move in.

Buying a new home can be a treacherous procedure, make sure you get all your research done before hand, get a good financial advisor and a mortgage consultant, and don’t fall in love with any houses! Think with your head