Helping Innovate Property (HIP) – Blog, Housing Market News and Articles

Brian Scannell of NHER and managing director of National Energy Services (NES) Ltd joins us to answer our questions in a two part interview.
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The training provider Property Professionals which was also known as Home Inspector Training (HIT) is understood to have gone into administration yesterday.

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The property market is starting to recover from the recent housing crash witnessed and experienced around the world. However, it is a start of a recovery and certainly in our minds has not ‘recovered’ as some would like us to believe will happen very shortly or has actually happened and we just missed it.

The economic meltdown caused by the banking crisis will no doubt continue to affect the property market for some time (unless it was really caused by the introduction of HIPs) though the phoenix could rise out of the flames with some new and improved solid foundations. This possibility does potentially bring some questions to the forefront;

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The Association of Independent Personal Search Agents (IPSA) have indicated that later today they will remove the non-Home Information Pack compliant Local Authority list from its public web site.

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The Association of Independent Personal Search Agents (IPSA) has welcomed the findings of the Property Codes Compliance Board (PCCB) independent assessment into personal searches, but issued a warning to property professionals.

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After the government bail out of the UK banking system in 2009, there is a now 50% tax levy on all future bonuses. Traditionally we enter “bonus season” in Q2, we expect to see buyers to start investing from this point and despite the new tax constraint the majority of banks have announced their intent to assign significant bonuses.

However, it is estimated that the bonus payments will be lower than in previous years and a larger proportion of payments will be made in shares and other types of investments. Looking to 2010, it is yet to be apparent what extent this will negatively affect sales volumes. In essence, bonus money will continue to play a central factor in the housing market and many cash rich individuals will still invest in the UK and abroad.

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Online estate agency is growing by the day and 2010 seems as if it could well be the year of sale by property owner websites. These property portals have been set up for owners to sell their own properties by missing out the estate agent. They are selling their services with claims of 0% commision and 0% fees.

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The Communities and Local Government (CLG) have sent a ‘shock’ letter to the accreditation schemes who oversee and monitor the quality of the Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs).

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A New and Innovative Proposal for Reform to the Home Selling and Buying Process. The HIP Reform Group, established in November 2009, and now boasting a membership of over 670 supporters, has this week released a ‘white paper’ containing a proposal for reform entitled – ‘New Year, New Start’.

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We are now ready for the Christmas break and looking forward to the festive period. We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a fantastic Christmas and prosperous New Year.

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Grant Shapps MP office contacted us after a recent article ‘Conservative Home Information Pack policy to stall property market?’ where we posed a few questions. Grant Shapps office offered to provide answers to these questions, which we were pleased to accept.

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