12
Nov
Hips to 'squeeze supply of one/two bedroom homes'
Plans to extend Home Information Packs (Hips) to one and two
bedroom houses would put further pressure on first-time buyers, it
has been claimed.
According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics),
applying hips to the properties will result in fewer smaller
properties coming on the market for sale.
This in turn would push up the price of those homes which are for
sale and in so doing contribute to a further barrier for first time
buyers attempting to get a foot on the property ladder, Rics
claims.
Rics spokesman Jeremy Leaf said: "The housing minister needs to
understand that rolling Hips out to one and two bed properties
could find first-time-buyers caught between a rock and a hard place
as accessibility to the market would go off the scale."
Statistics from Rics showed that following the introduction of Hips
for three or more bedroom properties the number of larger homes
coming onto the market in October was significantly down compared
with the previous year.
Among Rics members some 67 per cent said that numbers of such
properties coming onto the market had fallen, as opposed to 11 per
cent who said there had been an increase.
