Sell you house with ASDA - free HIP!

[Phil]

set to start selling houses

Shoppers may soon be carting away a property Supermarket group Asda is to start selling property through its stores.

Shoppers will be able to browse properties for sale via an in-store computer terminal.

People choosing to sell their homes through Asda will pay lower than average estate agency fees and receive a free Home Information Pack (HIP).

The system will be trialled in 10 Asda stores in the Sunderland area during the summer but could be rolled-out across the UK by the end of the year.

"For years, postcards on our community boards have helped customers rent their perfect pad - now we're going to help them buy it," said Gev Lynott, Asda's financial services director.

Incentives

People looking to buy property can browse a website with properties for sale and then leave their contact details.

They will then be contacted by a representative from Homes at Supermarkets who will arrange a viewing.

Incentives are to be offered to people looking to sell their home through their local Asda.

Sellers will receive a free HIP.

From June 2007 it will be compulsory for sellers to have an HIP.

The packs will contain a property survey as well as proof of ownership and local authority search results. Some estimates have put the cost of preparing an HIP at between =A3600 and =A31,000.

[Tim S]

That's rather interesting. Especially coming at a time when some are murmuring about a possible house price crash looming. Local estate agents looking doomed already my way, anything > 240k takes forever to sell, not that I have much sympathy...

As for the HIP, one thing I don't mind procuring the "ASDA Value" version of.

:->>>

Cheers

Tim

[Grunff]

Possible my arse - try inevitable.

[Mary Fisher]

Who writes the HIP and is it a set formula? I mean generally, not the supermarket style one.

Mary

[Tim S]

I agree - it's just "when" - and my feeling is "imminent", though the w^Hbankers and government will tell you otherwise.

Cheers

Tim

[Tim S]

Recall the recent thread on the inadequacies of Surveyors, Mary?

Well, HIP inspectors will take the concept of bottom-feeding-useless-wassocks to a whole new (lower) level.

There was a Radio 4 programme around last Christmas I think, that discussed the issues, with some trainee bottom-feeders. No engineers, builders or surveyors amongst them. There was a hairdresser and some other unlikely souls.

Tim

[Broadback]

Anything to poke estate agents in the eye, they do not sell houses, they wait for someone to come to buy them. Did you see the programme on TV last night, the estate agent was taken to task because he did not advise the seller as to what needed doing to sell his house. Do any estate agents ever give such advise?

[Mike Halmarack]

He responded very co-operatively to being taken to task didn't he? Agreed with everything, in the right order and to the letter. Quite photogenic for a baldy too.

Sure, if it gets them on telly.

[Ian Stirling]

Why would they care? They get the fee when they sell it, they get to pad their books with extra properties, ...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've been saying that for years, but the economy keeps on growing. One of those property progs on CH4 - 10 best places to invest in property or something was predicting strong increases in those areas.

[daddyfreddy]

They can murmur all they like but what do they base it on? Demand is still strong for property and unless interest rates rocket like they did last time there is not going to be a crash.

[Ian Stirling]

Probably only for the reason that "top 10 future places to be trapped in negative equity hell" was likely to get fewer viewers.

[Grunff]

The economy isn't half as healthy as we're lead to believe. Inflation is rampant (2%? really?? what about fuel, water, electricity, council tax etc?), unemployment is on the up and bankruptcies are soaring.

I saw that program too. Those with a vested interest will do their best to talk it up (just like last time), but the writing is on the wall.

The Nationwide kindly provide some very nice stats:

the middle dropdown to select UK House Prices Adjusted for Inflation)

[Grunff]

This is an incorrect assumption. High interest rates are not necessary for a crash. First time buyers are no longer buying - that in itself is more than enough.

[Ed Sirett]

I only partially agree with the last few posts.

More or less the equilibrium of house prices are inversely proportional to interest rates. When there is a step change in interests the effects happen soonest in London and the SE and spread as a wave away from there. There is still some 'catching up' in the provinces, I'm told. It will presumably die down. In London the prices are now static that means falling very slowly at a couple of percent per year in real terms. Homes are still being exchanged albeit less frequently than a couple of years ago. Interest rates are out of the control of gov't and their own short term agendas.

In the early 1990s, even when interest rates went up high then the prices of housing only came down fairly slowly (Eventually they would have fallen a long way but then the interest rates came down before that happened.)

The HIP debacle will likely resolve out in one of two way: Massive political backlash and it being repealed (less likely). Complete irrelevance adding another c.£1000 to conveyancing and supporting a small unnecessary sector of the economy (probable IMHO).

There may be some short term wobbles in the house prices due to a rush to avoid the HIP (fueled by media hype "You won't ever sell your house after the HIP!"). And an opposing reaction afterwards settling down to accommodate the extra £1000 for the HIP.

The question then moves on to what would cause the banks to increase interest rates...?

[Biggles]

Reading this thread is better than watching Grumpy Old Men - keep it up guys !

[daddyfreddy]

So there are no first time buyers at all? Yes, it's harder for first time buyers to get their foot on the ladder but because there are fewer doesn't mean there will be a crash. The prices reflect supply and demand, it doesn't matter who is buying them, be they first time buyers, landlords or whoever.

[Grunff]

Of course there are - but only about half as much as there were 7 years ago.

Oh yes it does. Care to make a wager?

Housing stock is massively overvalued. Look at property prices across the country, and compare them with rental income. If you bought a flat/house to let, you'd be lucky to see a 5% return on it, and that's before your costs. The market is fundamentally unstable and a correction is already underway.

[Tim S]

My observations in Kent are presently:

a) Everything, even in the crappier local towns, is hideously overpriced by any standard.

b) Houses around 200k are being sold in days/couple of weeks in a moderate percentage of cases, partly due to that being the max a wide band of people round here can manage if they get a silly mortgage. So the market is still apparantly boyant in one sector.

c) As previously mentioned, more expensive houses are languishing for ages - longer than normal. So something's changing.

d) People round here are starting to get worried about their jobs, bonuses are being cut etc.

e) The graph at the top of this page:

(based on nothing more than previous trends) to be about to tip over good and proper.

I've put a fiver on it all crumbling in a couple of years or less. But I could be hideously wrong, because our economy is structurally different compared to ten years ago - more tie in with the EU (migrant workers for one) and China is currently excelling at flooding the UK with cheap products.

As our resident Professor of Economics explained to me the other month, economic models *can* be very accurate until something fundamental changes (world crisis, oil price goes mental etc) then all bets are off and you need to come up with a new model.

I don't really know, make my braincell hurt.

Cheers

Tim

[Tony Bryer]

Yes you have a net income of say 3% but this should, over the long term, increase with inflation, whilst your capital also increases. The same would be true of investing in a blue-chip company where the yield would typically be 3% with a steadily increasing share price. So in pure investment terms I would suggest that buy-to-let properties are not overvalued.

My instincts are that house prices are what stockbrokers call fully valued - i.e. a quick gain is highly unlikely. What would be nice to have would be a collection of Daily Express front pages of the last few years that have alternately told people that house prices are set to double or crash.