Labour's buried HIPs research shows buyers never trusted them

News Category: Industry News

Research into HIPs that was commissioned well over a year ago by the Labour Government has finally been published.

It found that while most buyers wanted information about the condition of a house, over three-quarters would not trust it if it was commissioned by the seller.

Critics always suspected that the last administration sat on the results, knowing them to be damning, and called for publication before the General Election.

The CLG research was commissioned by a working party set up by then housing minister Margaret Becket in December 2008.

The working party was looking into the role of condition reports as far as HIPs were concerned, and commissioned research. This was carried out by DTZ and Ipsos MORI, the latter doing an online survey in June 2009 of 2,000 people who had bought or sold houses within the last three years.

It found that 78% of buyers would not trust information about the condition of a property unless they themselves commissioned it from an independent surveyor.

Grant Shapps, Coalition housing minister, said: “It was always obvious that HIPs were deeply unpopular with people selling homes because they created needless cost and hassle. What is now clear is that people buying homes didn’t rate them either.

“People who buy and sell homes want to know more about their condition, but forcing them to swap bits of information they don’t want or trust is a foolish way to try and improve the property market.

“That’s why in future this information will be provided on a strictly voluntary basis. We will allow the housing sector to develop products that include the information consumers actually want, and which they can rely on when buying a home.”


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