NEW OBSTACLE FOR HOUSE SELLERS

"I expect the usual tensions between home owners and agents struggling to make sense of more regulation and the omnipresent bureaucrats - who will no doubt be running around looking to slap enforcement notices on anybody who can't produce a certificate that confirms what every owner already knows: that heating bills this year will be crippling!"

Trevor Kent, the Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire agent at the forefront of the anti-HIPs campaign, says the clause specifying the October 1 deadline may have been "slipped in" with few people aware of it.

"To begin with, even the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) expressed no knowledge of it themselves," Kent says.

"But by placing the onus for getting an EPC on owners, rather than agents, it means agents will have the dubious task of asking owners to spend more money arranging an EPC on a property which has failed to sell for many months.

"In this market, many might give up their attempt to sell altogether, or at least shift their instruction to another agent to ease their frustration."

Meanwhile, Kent has launched a petition on the Downing Street website to gather signatures protesting about the January 1 deadline for mandatory HIPs before a home is allowed to go on sale. It can be accessed on www.petitions.number10.gov.uk/homeinfopacks.

:: INFORMATION: Henry Pryor has built a website The Hip Exchange (www.thehipexchange.co.uk) to help home owners to get Domestic Energy Assessors to bid for or tender to provide an EPC. The service is nationwide and free to use.

:: NEW HOME BUILDS SLIP WAY BELOW TARGET

The Government's demand for 240,000 new homes a year to beat the long-term shortage of housing is looking a victim of the credit crunch, as builders slash their workflow to reduce borrowings until market conditions improve.

Figures from the National House-Building Council (NHBC) reveal just 28,086 applications to start new homes in the quarter from May to July 2008 - a 47% decrease on the same period a year ago (52,907).

Of this total, some 10,251 starts were sought by housing associations, a 5% decrease on 2007, indicating that the public sector cannot fill the gap left by cutbacks in the private sector.

"The success of Government measures to re-energise the housing market will be short-lived unless urgent action is taken to increase mortgage lending by improving liquidity in the mortgage market," says NHBC chief executive Imtiaz Farookhi.

The NHBC says nearly 42,900 new homes were completed during the quarter - 15% down on 2007.

The August Housing Market Report (HMR) compiled by John Stewart at the Home Builders Federation says the percentage of builders reporting price falls stands at the highest level ever recorded.

It says the number of new homes registered in July 2008 was 57.4% down on a year earlier.

But at least the hefty price falls enabled the HMR to report that the affordability of new homes - measured in relation to income - actually improved in the first and second quarters of 2008. That would be good news for struggling first-timers if mortgage supply hadn't dried up at the same time.

HMR thinks that the housing market will "remain tough for the next 12-18 months", with Bank of England figures suggesting that Gross Domestic Product can only pick up from the third quarter of 2009.

:: AUCTION OFFERS INTERESTING WEST COUNTRY BOLTHOLES

Have auction prices found a new, and much-reduced, price level ahead of the mainstream housing market because sellers are much keener to clinch a sale?

Certainly brochures for several sales in the next few weeks include some guide prices low enough to get plenty of bidders into the auction room.

A three-bedroom Scandinavian-style holiday home in the 35-acre grounds of a manor house in Cornwall has a guide price of just £40,000-plus when it goes under the hammer in Redruth on September 24.

According to Westcountry Property Auctions, the lodge at St Tudy, Bodmin - available fully furnished and ready for letting - enjoys various on-site leisure facilities, including golf, tennis, a woodland adventure park, along with bars and restaurants.

Holiday boltholes come even cheaper at St Ives Holiday Village in a woodland setting at Lelant, well-placed to visit St Ives, Hayle and Penzance; a couple of two-bedroom bungalows are guided at £25,000 and £26,000.

Another good-value buy could be a double-fronted, two-bedroom, end-of-terrace cottage, close to Camborne town centre, also in Cornwall. With an £80-110,000 guide, it requires "comprehensive modernisation".

Despite their wrecked conditions, four barns in a rural setting outside the hamlet of Advent, near Camelford - with planning permission already granted for conversion to homes - could appeal to developers, with a price guide of £475,000-575,000.

But the real challenge is Carbis Mill at St Erth, in Hayle. Described as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity", it includes a former Mill, an attached dwelling house, and various stone outbuildings and barns in a countrywide site of 1.9 acres.

If they can see the potential to create either one family home, or a home plus adjoining holiday lettings, bidders are being guided to offer £400,000-plus.

:: INFORMATION: Westcountry Property Auctions (08702414 343). The two-day sale is in Redruth (September 24) and Plymouth (September 25).

:: CAN MALTA BEAT THE EURO-PROPERTY DOWNSWING?

Britons are being targeted by property developers in Malta, who predict that new sea-view apartments will rise in value by 15% a year to buck the trend of falling house prices in many other countries, writes ALFRED LEE.

The Mediterranean island, awarded the George Cross in 1942 by King George V1 for the bravery of its people in the face of months of heavy bombardment by the German Luftwaffe, is experiencing its biggest-ever house-building boom.

Already, Britons looking for a home in the sun for holidays, retirement, rental or investment are the biggest overseas buyers of newly-built, up-market properties in Malta, ahead of the Swiss, Russians, Dutch, Americans and Lebanese.

They are attracted because the new wave of development on the island shows a marked improvement in design and build quality - available at prices well below those buyers are likely to find elsewhere in the Mediterranean.

"They are being attracted to Malta by the year-round sun, good education and health facilities, tax incentives, the island's safety and the fact that nearly everybody speaks English," says Geoffrey Ciantar, general manager of real estate services company Coldwell Banker.

"Many people from Britain are deeply worried about falling property prices and are looking to buy in Malta, because investments are continuing to increase in value.

"We have had a lot of inquiries from former British military personnel who were based in Malta before or after the Second World War, and from their sons and daughters who were born here."

One of Malta's biggest property developments is at Tigne Point, near the former Royal Navy base and submarine harbour. The project includes 850 luxury homes, a 420-berth yacht marina, casino, hotel and shopping, sports and leisure facilities.

Debenhams have reserved a 2,500sq/m flagship store in the Tigne Point development, overlooking the island's fortress capital of Valletta. The whole area will be car-free, with access roads and parking facilities underground.

The newest phase of the massive Portomaso waterfront residential development, which includes a five-star hotel and marina for 110 yachts, is now coming on the market.

Prices range from £304,800 for a two-bedroom apartment to £1,013,000 for a four to five-bedroom duplex with private swimming pool, overlooking the Mediterranean.

"Our apartments have increased in value by 17% each of the past two years and we expect annual capital appreciation of at least 15% in coming years," Portomaso director Maurice Tabone says.

For buyers looking for a home in a more tranquil setting, there is the Tas-Sellum residential complex in the north of Malta, a former British colony with a population of 400,000 which takes just over an hour to drive from one end to the other.

At Tas-Sellum, a cluster of 150 homes featuring extensive landscaped areas, one-bedroom apartments cost between £138,500 and £174,000, two and three-bedroom flats are between £194,000 and £360,000, with penthouses between £544,000 and £800,000-plus.

The property-building boom in Malta will be landmarked by the Metropolis Plaza, three futuristic-styled towers housing prestige apartments, sky villas, penthouses and retail units. The main tower will be 33 storeys high - by far the tallest building in Malta.

An entire city block has already been excavated, and developers hope that construction of the island's first real skyscraper will begin this year and soon become a focal point of the Med's latest property hot spot.

::INFORMATION: Further details on all three developments are available from Coldwell Banker real estate services in Malta: Telephone 00356 2339 2200 or by email to gciantar@coldwellbankermalta.com.

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