London Property

HIPs - Home Information Packs - are the subject of much controversy.
HIPs are to be introduced in June 2007, and the government argues that the whole housing market will benefit from increased transparency.
The Home Condition Reports, part of the HIP, will likely save the potential buyer going to the expense of a professional Survey, on a property that they would otherwise not wish to purchase having seen the Survey result.
According to housing minister Yvette Cooper, around £1 million is wasted each day because of sales falling through, with a lack of accurate information at the early stages of a transaction to blame.
With HIPs expected to cost around £635 - but considerably higher in cities - it is likely that many more people will look to sell property privately online, iin 2007, as a means of significantly reducing the fees involved.



London is likely to perform well this year. This is for a host of reasons - from oil money being re-invested in London property to the up and coming Olympics. The best areas could well be slightly away from Docklands, and more focussed on reasonably priced property nearer to the centre.

Plans by the government to build thousands of new ‘affordable’ homes created some unease among UK Property investors. The real picture, though shows that sustained price growth is inevitable, driven by inadequate supply and changing demographics in Britain.

New train and tube links are opening up exciting new property investment markets, and revitalizing old ones, in the long under-rated corner of South and South-East London.