<< Most Recent Articles

Hip homeowners 'should not disguise bedrooms'

Property owners have been advised not to attempt to market their home with a reduced number of bedrooms in order to avoid the cost of a home information pack (Hip).

Abbey has urged householders to "play it straight" now that the regulation has been extended to three-bedroom houses, as bending the truth about the interior of a property is likely to discourage prospective buyers.

Some homeowners are said to be exploiting a loophole by renaming a bedroom as a 'study' or 'playroom' in order to prevent their property from meeting the Hips criteria - according to research by the building society, 8.5 million people with three-bedroom homes are prepared to take this measure.

"By remarketing your home as a two-bedroom house with a study, you'll become invisible to thousands of potential buyers that are searching online, specifically, for three or four bedrooms and above," advised Abbey's head of mortgages Nici Audhlam-Gardiner.

"You might also make your property seem over-valued as potential buyers will be comparing the price of your bigger abode against someone else's," she added.

Nationwide recently urged homeowners with fixed-rate home loans to consider remortgaging before the end of their deal, in order to avoid a "rate shock". A personal loan can help household finances.

See how much you could borrow with a home loan from Lombard Direct.

12/09/2007 17:04:02

Most Recent Articles