25
Aug
HIPS-overambitious sellers / agents ?
From 'Estate Agent Today' website
Over 1m HIPs wasted as majority of homes fail to
sell
Wednesday 25th August 2010
More than one million unnecessary Home Information
Packs were issued in the 12 months to June this year,
because so many houses failed to sell.
New research says that well over half of the 1.825 million
houses that were put on the market in England, Wales and Scotland
did not sell.
In total, more than 1.1 million homes remained unsold, compared
with 725,000 sales that went through.
High prices were cited as a main reason (18% of cases) for
properties failing to sell.
There were also 755,000 people who tried to buy but could not,
with 53% unable to find buyers for their own home.
One in ten buyers were unable to raise a sufficient deposit and
4% could not get a mortgage deal for other reasons. Some 12% of
people who tried to sell could not get an acceptable offer.
The findings are based on Land Registry and Register of Scotland
data, plus opinion polls conducted among more than 2,000 people in
June. The research has been released by the high street bank
Santander.
Phil Cliff, director of mortgages at Santander, said: “Our
research shows that it’s not just sellers who are having a
hard time, as many buyers say they’re unable to secure a good
mortgage deal, often because they find it difficult to save a
sufficient deposit.”
The Santander findings relating to unsold stock appear to be in
line with Rightmove. The property portal says that August has been
the sixth consecutive month of properties failing to sell, as
evidenced by the increased amount of unsold stock per agent.