Properties costing less than £175,000 are to be exempt from stamp duty for the next 12 months, the government has announced.

The move is part of a raft of measures to help the slowing property market and aid first-time buyers in getting on to the housing ladder.

From tomorrow (September 3rd), stamp duty on properties under £175,000 will be halted until the same date next year - saving up to £1,750.

At present, one per cent of the price of a home between £125,000 and £250,000 is owed to the government in stamp duty. Buyers of homes above the threshold will still have to pay stamp duty.

A Treasury statement said: "This will provide an exemption from stamp duty land tax for land transactions consisting entirely of residential property where the chargeable consideration is not more than £175,000."

The slowdown in the property market has seen a number of housing jobs lost and the average price of a home drop by over ten per cent in the last year, recent figures from Nationwide revealed.

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