OWNERS COULD BE LEFT COUNTING THE COST OF HIPs

Supporters of HIPs justified the added paperwork and bureaucracy on the grounds that would-be buyers lost around £1m per day on aborted purchases which often fell through when defects in the property were discovered subsequently.

It took a ten year debate - following a Labour manifesto promise in 1997 to reform the system of property purchase - for HIPs to be introduced. In 2008, the debate could come full circle, with heavy losses sustained this time by property owners, rather than buyers.

:: PACK PROVIDERS WARNED OVER ROGUE HIPs

Although the Housing Minister changed in the latest Government reshuffle - out goes Yvette Cooper, in comes Caroline Flint - the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is still facing embarrassments caused by the introduction of HIPs

Some HIP providers have tried to save a few pounds by using 'Register Views', photocopies of Land Register records, as evidence of title plans to be included in HIPs.

DCLG has had to point out that the HIPs Regulations 2007 require the inclusion of an 'official copy' from the Land Registry of the individual register and title plan, and that Register Views are insufficient for this purpose.

Naturally, critics of HIPs are jumping on the mistake with relish.

Says Law Society vice-president Paul Marsh: "This is further proof some HIPs providers do not understand, or choose not to understand, the regulations.

"The result is that sellers and buyers are being short-changed with substandard HIPs that will be quite rightly thrown in the dustbin by the buyer's solicitor."

Mr Marsh advises: "If you are selling up, choose a solicitor to compile your HIP. Solicitors understand the regulations and can therefore ensure the HIP meets the required standard."

Law Society spokesman Steve Rudaini says that solicitors have found some HIPs unreliable, sometimes failing to notice, for example, when a property is within a conservation area.

Says Mr Rudaini: "Some solicitors have been binning the HIP and saying that the information contained is simply not up to scratch."

Estate agent Trevor Kent, based in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, a long-term campaigner against HIPs, is being ironic when he observes: "Now Government has presented HIP providers with a monopoly of the market place, it is interesting to see some of them are behaving nearly as appallingly as estate agents.

"It shows how hard HIP providers are being squeezed on costs. Why else would they need to save a fiver on production costs by producing inferior reports?"

:: LONDON'S TOP HOMES WILL ESCAPE RECESSION

Despite controversy over Government plans to tax the wealthy "non doms" businessmen and their threat to leave the country, the super-prime residential market in Central London of homes worth £5m and more will avoid the recession which threatens much cheaper properties.

In fact, prime Central London prices are now so far detached from the rest of Britain that they are virtually on another planet. That's the conclusion of a survey from London and country agents Knight Frank which says 60% of all UK homes worth £4m-plus in the capital go to foreign buyers.

It seems the global population of high net worth individuals (HNW) rose 8.3%, or by 700,000 in 2006, and there are nearly half a million HNWs in Britain.

Typically, HNWs are upping their investment in property from 16% to 24% of their portfolios, while the supply of suitable properties in London within a tightly defined area, Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Belgravia, Mayfair, is tightly controlled.

So far as new property is concerned, Knight Frank says an "arms race" between developers has tried to produce luxury living for the super-rich, but probably only the Montevetro project, built on Battersea Reach in 2000, hit all the standards required in high quality contemporary residential architecture.

The best new developments expect to achieve prices topping £4,000 per sq ft. Knight Frank estimates that there are currently 1,140 'super-prime' units in the Central London development pipeline, but housing completions in prime Central London in 2006/7 were barely half those achieved in 2003/4.

At One Hyde Park, the iconic development of 80 apartments by the Candy brothers, Knight Frank says recent sales achieved £5,700 per sq ft.

It says: "The pull effect of One Hyde Park has meant that whereas £2,500 per sq ft represented the peak of the market in Knightsbridge in 2006, 18 months later, £4,000 per sq ft is not only achievable, it is now expected for refurbished and newly-developed properties in the super-prime sector."

Around the UK, says Liam Bailey at Knight Frank's Research Department, buyers might expect to pay £250-300 per sq ft in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester; £400-450 in Guildford, Surrey; around £300 in Glasgow/Edinburgh, possibly £1,000 in St George's Hill, near Weybridge, Surrey. Padstow/Rock in Cornwall have also seen sales around £1,000 per sq ft.

"Central London doesn't really relate to the rest of the UK in any way at all", says Mr Bailey. "It is a market on its own."

:: AUCTION RESERVES CUT BACK TO KEEP SALES UP

Although funding sources are drying up, bidders who can go into the auction room with real money to spend are likely to secure some good deals in the first quarter of the year.

Agents are acutely aware that their sales performance figures are being closely watched by rivals - and with some sales failing to sell 70% of lots going under the hammer, reserve prices are being reduced to keep the figure as high as possible.

Preparing for the two day Westcountry Property Auction in Redruth and Plymouth in early-March, auctioneer Graham Barton says: "We have shaved guide prices and reserves by 10-15% on the figure we would have sought a year ago.

"We achieved a 73% success rate on our last sale and want to achieve at least that figure again, although we act mostly for individual owners who need to get a sale.

"By contrast, some London agents who boast of 80% success rates tend to be acting for corporate clients who aren't too fussy about prices achieved, so long as they get stuff off their hands."

Mr Barton says bidders chase "rent machines" in uncertain times - clean properties which rent easily to produce a steady yield. A two bedroom flat in Plymouth, earning £4,680 per year on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy, fits the bill perfectly with a guide of £59,000-plus.

Cottages mostly need extensive interior refurbishment: a two bedroom cottage three miles from St Ives is guided at £95,000-plus, and another in a good-sized gardens at Bodrean, outside Truro, should top £115,000.

Dove Cottage, barely 50 yards from Porth beach, a sandy beach around the corner from Newquay, should also attract plenty of interest at £135,000-plus.

Fans of the TV programme Grand Designs might be tempted by a small mansion, still unfinished, with fine views across both the North and South Cornish coasts on a stunning location near Penzance.

A change in family circumstances means the builder no longer wants it - and the guide price is £600,000-plus.

Cheapest holiday hideaway in the collection is almost certainly the two bedroom holiday bungalow at St Ives, which can't be used as a permanent residence. It is expected to sell for something over £28,000.

Graham Barton says the sale only includes one repossession. In the South West, he says, lenders take repossessions and try to find buyers on the open market, only resorting to the auction room as a last resort.

The latest series of sales from Countrywide - Manchester March 5, Leeds March 6, Birmingham March 10, Bristol March 11, London March 14 and Llandudno March 19 - includes properties more likely to make full-time homes, at a discount to open market valuations.

A couple of repossessed flats in the converted Albion Works in Central Manchester have a guide of £85,000-plus, while investors might be attracted by new flats in Hugh House, in the middle of Chester, from £127,000 for one bedroom and £170,000 for two bedrooms.

More two bedroom flats within a converted period building in Blundellsands, Liverpool, are each guided at £120,000-125,000.

The Leeds sale includes four two bedroom flats in Thorneholme Road, Sunderland, guided at £100,000 each.

In Cranbrook Street, Nottingham, in the NG1 postcode, a one bedroom third floor flat is guided at £60,000-75,000. Investors based in more expensive Southern England might be tempted to boost their portfolios.

:: INFORMATION: Westcountry Property Auctions (0870 2414 343 and www.westcountrypropertyauctions.co.uk); Countrywide Property Auctions (0870 240 1140 and www.countrywideproperty auctions.co.uk)

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