Several reports have recently been published stating that Home Information Packs (HIPs), which came into force on 1 st August, have slowed the residential housing market down.

Jeff Smith, chief executive of HIP Payment Services, is keen to point out that HIPs were designed to improve the process, enabling faster and smoother transactions.

He said: “One of these reports is Rightmove’s latest index in which they attributed the reported fall in asking prices almost entirely to the launch of this new reform. Despite announcing the lowest number of sellers in September since 2004, we are also told that asking prices have in fact dropped. I fear that Rightmove can’t have it both ways – surely the laws of supply and demand are quite clear, a reduction in supply should have forces prices up, not down.”

The launch of HIPs was restricted to larger, typically more expensive homes with four or more bedrooms which makes up 17% of the entire market and HIPs has already been extended to homes with three bedrooms or more, with the rest of the housing stock soon to follow.

Smith adds: “If property prices have indeed fallen over the last month, instead of HIPs taking the blame, perhaps lenders should take into account the severe weather conditions, the three interest rate rises experienced this year and the current turmoil in the US which is threatening to filter through to the UK property market, and not the introduction of HIPs to 17% of the market.”