Recent findings from the specialist mortgage lender showed that while HIPS remained a hot topic in the housing industry, 58 per cent of respondents to the survey were still sceptical about the initiative’s introduction.
The implementation date for the controversial scheme is set for 1 June 2007. It has been widely debated that this is unrealistic and many industry figures believe the government has failed to adequately inform both the mortgage market and consumers about the scheme.
Commenting on the findings, Paul Hunt, head of marketing at Platform, said: “Our survey has shown that although 40 per cent of intermediaries agree that HIPS will improve the overall buying process, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to address the doubts of a majority of mortgage intermediaries.”
Nick Salmon, leader of the Splinta Campaign against the introduction of HIPs, said the reasons given for the government’s implementation of HIPs were inaccurate. He said: “I do not think the introduction of HIPs will provide extra protection for house buyers or improve the house buying process. If you take it in its entirety, you need to examine if the cost is worth what you get out of it, and it isn’t. It will not address the fundamental reasons for a house sale falling through, which is mostly due to human circumstance.”
Salmon argued that the government’s predictions that the introduction of HIPs will see a 10 per cent drop in the UK housing supply is unrealistic, and said this is more likely to be around 30 per cent. He added that if the predicted 1 per cent drop in housing supply equals a 3 per cent increase in house prices, then there will be more issues surrounding affordability for property buyers in the UK housing market.
