HOME Reports have been more of an advantage than a disadvantage to the Scottish property market, an estate agent boss has said.
Gary Thomson, managing director for Clyde property, defended Home Reports after criticism that the cost was discouraging homeowners from putting their property up for sale and stalling a recovery in the market north of the Border.
Mr Thomson said: "Overall, Home Reports have been more of an advantage than a disadvantage.
"If someone selling their house doesn't have £400 to pay for a Home Report then they've got bigger problems to worry about – it's a lame excuse to be frank. And you have to remember that while they might pay for a Home Report when they're selling, then they're going to save money on getting multiple surveys done when they go on to become the buyer.
"Multiple surveys for people paying for surveys and then being unsuccessful in the purchase of that house is morally wrong.
"Home Reports have made life simpler, and I actually think it's encouraging more people to buy because people are more open to negotiating a price."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article