Only one in six home movers believe that the introduction of HIPs (Home Information Packs) will speed up the buying process and just one third believe they are a good idea, according to a new survey by thinkproperty.com, a major new, independent consumer property portal which offers estate agents an online sales and marketing channel to deliver better value, improved lead generation and excellence in customer service.

The survey, which had over 3,100 respondents, revealed that more than one third of home movers are confused about Home Information Packs and one third of home owners were not aware of their introduction in June. A third of respondents believe HIPs will slow down the property market, twenty per cent commented that HIPs will increase property prices (http://www.thinkproperty.com/soldhouseprices.htm), seventeen per cent believe HIPs will lower property prices and thirty per cent believe that the introduction of HIPs will not change how they buy property (http://www.thinkproperty.com/findanagent.htm).

In spite of home movers’ lack of support for HIPs, the vast majority would modify their property to make it ‘green’ if the Government incentivised this with offers of green mortgages and lower council tax. Over two thirds of home movers do not believe the Government is doing enough to build greener homes, and sixty per cent say the same of new home developers.

One hundred per cent of respondents agreed that the Government should help home owners to fund fuel efficient boilers to improve energy efficiency, followed by roof insulation (eighty per cent), double glazing (seventy per cent), solar panels (sixty one per cent) and wall insulation (forty seven per cent). Just seventeen per cent felt that the Government should financially help home owners with energy improving devices.

However, the results highlighted a general lack of interest in green properties, with sixty per cent claiming that they didn’t want more information on green property issues. In fact, less than two thirds of home movers claimed to be interested in the environment, with nearly sixty per cent commenting that ‘there are more important things to be worrying about’. The view from one in five respondents was that it is too expensive to switch to environmentally friendly products, with over one quarter of home movers commenting that ‘the only people that are interested in the environment are sandal-wearing hippies’.

Already, seventy per cent of home movers claim to have double glazing, sixty per cent have roof insulation, fifty seven per cent use low energy light bulbs and forty per cent run a fuel efficient boiler. Over two thirds of home movers claim to recycle and three quarters say they switch off all unused lights.

Low energy lighting should be compulsory for all new home builds according to over seventy per cent of respondents, followed by solar panels (fifty five per cent) and grey water systems (forty two per cent).

Mark Goddard, Managing Director of the property portal (http://www.thinkproperty.com/) comments: “Clearly the introduction of HIPs is not popular with home movers and many think that the Government should be doing more to help home owners improve the energy efficiency of their homes.”

About ThinkProperty
ThinkProperty.com (http://www.thinkproperty.com/) provides an accountable marketing channel to today’s modern property professional and already averages 400,000 property details available from around the UK every day.

ThinkProperty.com is owned by Trader Media Group which has an unrivalled reputation for bringing buyers and sellers together in huge numbers through its dealer software products and market leading consumer websites and magazines.

Via EPR Network
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