Hips 'not to blame' for market slowdown

Home information packs (Hips) are not responsible for the slowdown in the housing market seen over the past few months, the Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP) has said.

Last week the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) said that Hips had been responsible for a noticeable decrease in the number of three and four-bed properties for sale in October compared with the same period in 2006.

But AHIPP has said that the situation is not as clear cut as the NAEA has suggested.

"With the ongoing credit squeeze, the first run on a bank since the depression and three interest rate rises since the beginning of the year it is not surprising that the market has experienced some turbulence," said AHIPP deputy director general Paul Broadhead.

"I do not accept that a charge of roughly £300 for a Hip will really stop someone deciding to sell their property," Mr Broadhead added.

The NAEA had acknowledged that there were a number of factors at play but pointed to the anomaly between sales of properties which require Hips and those which do not.

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