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

As part of our ‘House Buying Guide‘ we look at realistic mortgage and borrowing options and how to formulate what amount of money can be borrowed and more importantly be repaid.

We have all read and heard the recent news stories of families that are in difficult mortgage related positions, some of which immediately entered into a negative equity position. Dispatches recently reported thousands of people were accepted for 125% interest only mortgages by the five leading banks and some bank clients that were allowed to obtain a mortgage of 10 times their earnings. How could this ever be described as responsible lending?

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The Government is looking at a ‘rescue’ package for the current suffering housing market.   The government has pledged to “help people with housing” though has yet to announce the measures and is still working on the exact policy. One of the proposed measures which is being speculated upon is maybe to reduce, freeze or possibly scrap stamp duty. This possibility obviously has a massive impact on revenue to the Treasury.

The speculation in regard to stamp duty is causing the opposite effect that it would be hoped it would have, if it was to be reduced or removed. House sales are being postponed as potential buyers are stalling waiting for confirmation of ther Governments’ intentions. The Government has stated that the talk within the media regarding stamp duty is just speculation and that no proposals have been put forward.

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Finding your next house to make your home used to be the first item on many peoples list in the house buying process though this has certainly changed. It is essential one finds the level of money that you can borrow (‘mortgage promise’) prior to your house search, otherwise you could be spending time and effort looking for a house which does not realistically suit your affordability. See this post ‘deciding how much you can borrow and afford’.

So you have been offered a mortgage in principal, how are you going to find the house of your dreams?

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This week has been eventful for sure in the continued life of Home Information Packs. HIPS are now 1 year old and news headlines continue to be made from the debate on Home Information Packs (HIPS). Recently, significant reports of non-compliance of the legislation have come to light and been acknowledged by leading figures involved within the industry.

Yesterday, it was widely reported by many news agencies including the BBC that some agents, I must stress only ‘some’ agents; are flouting the law and are proceeding to market properties without the legally required Home information Packs.

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Over the next few weeks HIP-Consultant.co.uk will be compiling our guide to buying your next home.

There are many guides to buying a home that have been written though as we are all well aware the market is not as buoyant as it has been in recent times. Often these guides have been written in a manner which reflected a bullish housing market; some areas are now not as relevant and also there are new aspects to be considered with the high reductions in number of houses currently being sold.

Our house buying guide will include the following areas; when completed the bullet points will be updated with links to each section to formulate the ‘complete guide’.

• Deciding how much you can really afford and formulating your level of borrowing
• Finding your next home
• Deciding on a house
• Making your offer on your dream home
• The conveyancing and legal work of buying your property

We look forward to publishing each article and if you feel there any other areas that we should consider let us know.

Where is the UK mortgage market at present and where is this financial market heading? The reports in the press now detail many bad news stories for the housing market and that the mortgage sector is going through what must feel like to many as a dramatic re-assessment of it practices and lending procedures.

As many as 23,000 home owners whom have taken out 100% mortgages since March this year face a negative equity situation at present. However, this only totals 5% of mortgages accepted in this same period. The information from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) comes as figures from within the industry support the fact that the housing market is slowing down further.

HIP-Consultant.co.uk deal with many estate agents and home sellers through providing our Home Information Packs solution. It is common place that agents are only selling about a third of the levels they have become accustomed to. It seems inevitable many estate agents will close or consolidate their positions due to the challenging conditions.

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Landlords and managing agents are now acting on the EPC requirements of the EPBD legislation ahead of the 1st October. We recently posted about Landlords EPC requirements and wanted to add further information in regard to what counts as marketing a property and what certain scenarios require.

As of the 1st October 2008; when as is usual a letting agent managing agent or landlord produces details for marketing purposes of the property which is being offered for rent it will often consist of information including:

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HIP-Consultant.co.uk have been providing EPCs for Landlords as the important date of the EPBD legislation nears i.e. 1st October 2008. We have been pleased to be able to help Landlords apply for energy saving grants to act on the recommendations within the Energy Performance Certificates for their rented properties.

Landlords are able to apply for energy efficiency grants/allowances and have been able to since the Landlord’s Energy Saving Allowance (LESA) scheme was introduced on 6th April 2004 and then 2 years later expanded upon. It will be of interest to see if the level of LESA applications rise due to the Energy Performance Certificates that Landlords will soon require and have to make available. See this post for more information for when Landlords must provide EPCs.

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From 1 October 2008 all homes being let will be required to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).

The complexities of this legislation seems yet to be fully understood by all and has promted us to expand our EPC FAQ page.

Some of the points of the legislation which I feel are paramount to Landlords are:
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The Government today announced a package of measures to help ensure consumers are seeing the vital information in Home Information Packs and are receiving a higher standard of service in the home buying and selling process.
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The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), the residential sales arm of the National Federation of Property Professionals (NFOPP), is disappointed that first day marketing is not going to be scrapped completely, but welcomes the move by the Minister for Housing and Planning to work with the industry to make HIPs more effective.
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