Will new regulation make it harder to sell homes?

There are fears that a newly proposed regulation relating to property sales could make it even more difficult for tens of thousands of homeowners to sell their homes at a time when property sales are already slumping for a wide range of reasons, including lack of affordability, continuing house price falls, and even due to HIPs.

The proposal has been put forward by Sir Michale Pitt, who is heading a government enquiry into flooding. He said that potential home buyers needed to be made aware of the risks of flooding with higher risk properties, and added that this information needed to be included in the Home Information Pack.

Pitt said that the government was putting people and their belongings at risk by failing to be transparent and clear enough, and said that at present this sort of information did not have to be provided by home sellers. He said: ‘Home Information Packs should contain information on flooding as well. Believe it or not, that’s not the case at the moment.’

It is thought that if these plans come to fruition then around three quarters of a million homeowners living near the Thames could be affected, and the information could affect their chances of selling the home or could wipe a great deal of money off the value of the property.