Hips 'will benefit consumers'

Posted: 26 May 2006 10:27:25 GMT

A new book has concluded that Home Information Packs (Hips) will make the property buying process easier and quicker and that consumers will ultimately save money.

Hips are far from universally popular and critics continue to argue that they will damage the property market by dissuading people from putting their houses on the market.

This argument is disputed by the new Which? book, 'Buy, Sell and Move House', which stresses that Hips will significantly cut down on the number of transactions that fall through.

It is claimed that more than 30 per cent of property transactions are currently falling through, which is costing around £1 million a day in addition to the "incalculable costs in terms of time and anxiety".

More than two-fifths of these transaction failures occur because of survey or valuation inspection reports that expose faults in the property and it is hoped that Hips will put an end to this by adding greater transparency from the beginning.

Kate Faulkner, author, Buy, Sell and Move House, comments: "The Hip ought to make buying a property a more efficient process and reduce the astonishing failure rate that means a third of accepted offers come to nothing in the end.

"Fewer failed transactions means less wasted money. So they're going to save people cash as well as time and effort," she added.


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