The government has attempted to provide a further boost to the housing market by extending the stamp duty holiday until the end of the year.
Stamp duty exemption for homes sold for less than £175,000 will be extended until the end of 2009, the chancellor of the exchequer has announced.
The measure was introduced by Alistair Darling during his Budget speech as part of a £1 billion package to help the housing industry. However, both the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) and Nationwide Building Society suggested that more needs to be done for UK homeowners and buyers.
According to the Rics - which welcomed the extension - stamp duty could be could be changed from its current structure to a "marginal system", similar to income tax. Without any change at all, the Rics warned that the end of the holiday "could cause serious distortions to any upturn in the housing market".
Nationwide chief economist Fionnuala Earley was unhappy with the stamp duty decision, arguing that the level of the threshold "will still predominantly benefit those in the north". She expressed disappointment that the government had not taken into consideration Nationwide's suggestion for a "wide-reaching review of the system".
The housing package also contained extra support for the HomeBuy Direct scheme and government guarantees for mortgages, aimed at increasing the level of mortgage lending. Money was also set aside for restarting stalled construction projects, both to help the construction industry and boost housing availability.
