Budget watchers and first-time buyers were praying that Mr Darling would do something radical with stamp duty in the Budget. Well, he did, up to a point. If you are a key worker or a first-time buyer with an annual household income of less than £60,000 and are looking for a new-build property, you might be in luck.

So how can I avoid stamp duty?

From April 1, buyers on the New Build HomeBuy or Social HomeBuy shared-ownership schemes will be largely exempt from stamp duty. These buyers (of their own council houses, in the case of Social HomeBuy) take out a conventional mortgage on a proportion - between 25 and 75 per cent - of the value of a new-build property on a government-approved housing development and pay subsidised rent to a housing association landlord on the rest. You may choose gradually to increase your share as your finances improve, in a process known as “staircasing”, until you own the lot. When you want to sell, your share can either be sold to someone nominated by your landlord or, if you own 100 per cent, you can sell on the open market at market value, although the landlord has first refusal.

Is it just a temporary reprieve?

It depends what you choose to do. Under the Chancellor's new proposal, unveiled in his first Budget on Wednesday, everyone who buys using these shared-ownership schemes is exempt from stamp duty until they own 80 per cent of the property, at which point they pay stamp duty at a much reduced rate because it is only on the remaining 20 per cent. In the vast majority of cases, according to a Housing Corporation spokeswoman, shared-ownership buyers own “considerably less” than 80 per cent of their home, so it is a full exemption in all but name. In effect, you could own 79 per cent of your home for ever and never pay stamp duty.

Are there other options?

Mr Darling's other Budget announcement applies to shared-equity buyers. Under the Open Market HomeBuy scheme, you may currently take out a special low-cost “equity loan” from a mixture of government and private sources of up to 32.5 per cent of the value of any property (not just new-build), alongside a conventional mortgage for the rest of the property. From April 1, however, loans for a greater proportion of a property's value will be available under two new financial products that will replace the current ones.

How can I find one of these deals?

Under the first of these, known as “Ownhome”, you can borrow up to 40 per cent of the value of a property from Places for People, a large developer and property management company, in an equity loan that is interest-free for the first five years, rises to a tiny 1.75 per cent interest for the next five years and then to 3.75 per cent per annum after that. The remaining proportion of the property's value is funded by a premium-free mortgage from the Co-operative Bank, which offers a range of fixed-rate and tracker deals.

Contact: ownhome.co.uk ,

0845 6070110

Any other options?

The second, simpler, option, “MyChoice HomeBuy”, allows you to take out an equity loan of 15 to 50 per cent of the property's value from a housing association (eight are participating: Aldwyck, Bedfordshire Pilgrim, Catalyst, Metropolitan, Moat Homes, Swaythling, Thames Valley and Tower Homes), which is charged at 1.75 per cent per annum from the start. The rest is funded with a conventional mortgage from any lender you choose, and this scheme also allows you to remortgage later with a different lender.

What if I have no deposit?

Fortunately neither scheme requires a deposit - though you will be better off if you can provide a small one. Under both shared-equity schemes, when you come to sell, you must pay back the loan provider their share in any profit you make on the sale of the property. And don't forget that you will still be liable to pay stamp duty.

What about the rest of us?

The rest of the home-owning population will have to nurse their disappointment that this latest Budget has again failed to align stamp duty with soaring house price inflation. Martin Ellis, chief economist at Halifax, said: “It is disappointing that the Chancellor did not take the opportunity today to address stamp duty thresholds, which have not kept pace with the increase in house prices for many years now.” Perhaps there is comfort in the news that Mr Darling has made a nano-step in the right direction.

housingcorp.gov.uk , 0845 2307000