The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development extended the waiver on its anti-flipping requirement another two years, Mortgage Daily reported Nov. 28. HUD said it extended the waiver to further encourage the purchase, renovation and resale of foreclosed properties.

The anti-flipping requirement stipulated that a homebuyer could not obtain an FHA loan if the property they were purchasing had been acquired by the seller within the prior 90 days. However, HUD first waived the requirement in May 2010, and then extended it again, one-year at a time, through the end of 2012. The new two-year waiver extension doubles previous extensions and ends in 2014.

“During this period of high foreclosures, FHA seeks to encourage investors that specialize in acquiring and renovating properties to renovate foreclosed and abandoned homes,” HUD noted at the time of the first waiver, Mortgage Daily reported.

In order for a property to qualify for a waiver, all transactions must have been completed without conflict of interest between the buyer and the seller and any price increase of more than 20 percent has to be justified by a second FHA appraisal or documented renovation costs.