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Chancellor Alistair Darling has announced new changes to the current stamp duty system, which may be welcomed by those considering buying a home.
Stamp duty land tax will not be applied to residential property purchases of £175,000 or under made between September 3rd 2008 and the same date next year.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said this "one-year stamp duty holiday" would be welcomed by first-time buyers who have so far been unable to get onto the housing ladder.
However, nine in ten property transactions will remain unaffected by the threshold change, the organisation claimed.
It is unlikely to benefit buyers in London, for instance, who have to pay approximately £260,000 for their first home, it stated.
"Rics is pleased that the government has ended the uncertainty over stamp duty but there should be a complete holiday from stamp duty followed by reform of the slab system to a marginal system similar to income tax," the group commented.
Michael Coogan, director general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, predicted that half of all housing transactions would still be "caught" by stamp duty.
