Saturday 19 May 2007

We have a date set for the housing crash.

Apparently, it is going to be June 1st, 2007. At least, that is what the headline from the guardian says.

Everyone is screaming about those awful home information packs (HIPs).The housing industry is in a particularly hysterical mood, claiming that HIPs will provoke a massive housing crash. Dammit, why didn't we introduce them before? If we had, the Bank of England could have avoided raising interest rates, the HIPs would have cooled the market.

Ironically, the timing of these HIPs will probably closely correspond with June 1. It could well be that we are seeing a myth being born. Rather than buy-to-let idiocy, monetary stupidity at the Bank of England and repulsive greed, we can collectively blame the government for the crash.

"It wasn't us, Guv, honest, it was those HIPs and the government wot done it".

Crash, mayhem, disaster . . . estate agents and surveyors were in full-on apocalyptic mode this week as they issued stark warnings about the damage home information packs — or Hips — will wreak on the housing market. With less than a fortnight to go until the controversial packs are finally with us, the scheme's many opponents mounted a multi-pronged attack.

While the chartered surveyors' body Rics launched a legal challenge, and opposition MPs tried — and failed — to block the reforms at the 11th hour, some estate agents claimed the scheme would severely damage the property market. The Haart chain says the rules are a mess, and unless the government amends the legislation, "it will have a housing crash on its hands on June 1" — the date the scheme goes live across England and Wales.


"Panic is spreading among sellers as they start to realise the full implications of the ill-conceived Hips," says Rics member Mark Hunter at agents Grice & Hunter in Doncaster, south Yorkshire, while Edward Waterson at Carter Jonas in York say he expects "mayhem".

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There has been a date set for a crash since 2002.

Demand still outweighs the amount of properties that are actually on the market. I'm not going to count on a crash just yet...

Anonymous said...

But now's the time to sell - or maybe it's a few months too late. Things don't crash - they just go pssssssssssssssssssss.

Anonymous said...

Things don't crash - they just go pssssssssssssssssssss.

Indeed - not a bang, but a whimper.

That "demand" for properties will soon dry up if enough potential purchasers start to believe that prices are going to stop rising. The same psychological positive feedback that has fuelled the market over the last five years will feed the crash just as effectively...