Hips suspension 'makes no difference to market'

Date:Friday 25th June 2010
Author: Max Freedman

The suspension of the home information packs (Hips) scheme has not resulted in any changes in the property market.

In the view of Paul Holmes, chief executive officer at Firstrung, an increase in the number of homes on the market is not due to the programme ending, as some have been speculating.

Instead, the expert thinks that it is concerns over changes to the costs of homes and taxes brought that homeowners thought were going to be introduced in the emergency Budget that were having the biggest impact.

"The explosion in new listings was firstly people being concerned about the Budget and the potential that capital gains tax was going to hit any property profits quite harshly," he said.

Mr Holmes added that some homeowners were looking to sell their property soon as they do not think they will get a profit if they leave it much longer.

It had earlier been reported by Rightmove that there were 22 per cent more properties for sale following the abolition of Hips.