Click here to see who will be the winners and losers with the stamp duty holiday

Rumours of a change to the stamp-duty regime enraged agents when they were leaked last month. Such relief from the dread tax was exactly the sort of market assistance that they hoped would come from the Government - but the promise of tax savings at some future time caused some of the few active buyers to abort deals. The announcement of a suspension of stamp duty on all homes priced under £175,000 may not be as generous as hoped - but has quickly removed the damaging uncertainty.

Research from Halifax, the lender, indicates that 230,000 homebuyers in England and Wales would have been spared stamp duty if the temporary higher threshold had been in place last year. Sadly, fewer buyers will be likely to benefit over the course of the 12-month holiday because of the sharp decline in property sales, particulary in the lower prices ranges, which has suffered from the lack of first-time buyers. The average first-timer, Halifax reports, pays an average £144,283 for a home on which he or she would be saved an average £1,443 in stamp duty.

The change will bring temporarily the exemption from stamp duty in line with the current average house price - which the latest Land Registry figures show to be £178,364 - but many buyers in London, the South East, South West and East of England will not feel the benefit. The average cost of a home in these areas far exceeds the Government's £175,000 cut-off: in Greater London the average home costs £348,366.

The significant regional differences are confirmed by research carried out by Hometrack, the property data company, for Bricks & Mortar this week and are shown on the table and map, right. Larger areas benefiting most from the new rules will be the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside, and the North West, where 70 per cent of transactions are for homes valued at less than £175,000 - a marked improvement on the previous tax ceiling, which helped only about 50 per cent of buyers in those areas.

Hometrack's analysis of transactions by postcode confirms the North-South divide. Homebuyers in parts of Middlesbrough, Liverpool and Birmingham will welcome the change because in some parts 100 per cent of all housing sales last year fell below the new stamp-duty threshold. Smaller areas of Hull, Manchester and Sheffield are close on their heels.In stark contrast, parts of southwest London will be almost unaffected. In Chelsea and Earls Court fewer than 0.2 per cent of sales are affected by the stamp-duty holiday.

The suspension will reduce transaction costs for a small minority, by up to £1,750. Ray Boulger, of John Charcol, the mortgage adviser, believes it is not the answer. “The issue lies more with mortgage lenders and their 'shut-up-shop' attitude to lending above certain loan-to-value mortgages,” he explains. Until the Government addresses this there will be only a trickle of new buyers entering the market.

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