HIPs put brake on house prices

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As a result, price rises have virtually ground to a halt. The rate of increase has plummeted from 3.6 per cent in April to just 0.4 per cent this month.

The figures are revealed by Britain's biggest property website, rightmove.co.uk.

It says 200,115 homes have been newly advertised in the past four weeks – way above the previous record of 178,158.

After June 1 it will be illegal – with a possible £200 a day fine – to put up a For Sale sign without one of the controversial packs, which contain all the documents needed to sell a home, such as local authority searches and proof of ownership.

But homes put on the market before then can stay there until January without the need for a HIP.

Experts fear the packs will badly distort the market, with few people putting their homes up for sale in the weeks after they are introduced.

That could send prices soaring.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has launched a legal challenge to the scheme and the House of Lords will tomorrow debate a Tory call for it to be scrapped.