Stamp duty has been 'a desperate failure'

The number of people who have benefited from the stamp duty holiday is just 25 per cent of government forecasts, new research has shown.

Only £173 million was saved by 115,447 buyers compared to the £600 million the government had estimated would be saved during the tax break, Zoopla.co.uk said.

The tax holiday has failed in its attempts to enable more first-time buyers to enter the market, advice specialists Firstrung have claimed.

Paul Holmes, the firm's chief executive, said: "If the initiative was to jumpstart first-time buyers into the housing market then it has been a desperate failure.

"It still indicates that the main barrier for first-time buyers to enter the property market is price. That is the single biggest issue."

Mr Holmes also suggested that recent calls for the government to raise the threshold to £250,000 would have a "disastrous effect" on the property market as vendors would simply raise their asking prices.

"It would be a really desperate measure of how much false value the government attaches to the housing market. If they take such a dramatic initiative that would be wrong," he added.

A further 37,500 buyers are expected to save £61 million in the last four months of the year.

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