House price growth halves

The Home Information Packs scheme is continuing to distort figures in the housing markets, according to a leading property website.

The average asking price in England and Wales rose 2.7% in the last month, after a 2.6% fall in asking prices in August. This was caused by owners rushing to sell their homes before HIPs came into affect, said Miles Shipside, commercial director at Rightmove.co.uk.

Home Information Packs were launched for homes with four or more bedrooms at the beginning of August. They were then rolled out for properties with three bedrooms from September 10th. HIPs are expected to cover all homes by November.

The packs cost sellers around £400 and contain key information such as title deeds, local searches and an energy performance certificate.

According to Rightmove, there was a surge of three-bedroom homes coming onto the market in an attempt to beat the September 10th deadline. This, combined with a return of more four-bedroom homes being put up for sale after a downturn, had pushed the average asking price up.

Miles Shipside said: “It is unfortunate timing that HIPs and their side effects are straddling a period of record house prices, the highest interest rates for six years and a tightening in mortgage lending criteria.

These abnormal external factors make it very hard for policy makers to read the housing market and assess the effects of wider global influences.”

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