Brown introduces a stamp duty holiday

So Brown has introduced a stamp duty holiday as part of his rescue package for home owners and buyers. From tomorrow until 3 September 2009, properties costing less than £175,000 will be exempt from the levy. Oddly – even though plans for a stamp duty holiday emerged a few weeks ago – it’s still a surprising announcement. Since that initial leak, the government has kept a tight lid on the proposal, and – right up until this morning – it was widely assumed that it had been ditched.

There’s evidence to suggest it could prove popular with a public which is increasingly feeling the fiscal squeeze. But I’m still not convinced it’s the right thing to do. Not only are there question marks over how much of a boost it will actually give to the housing market (yes prices are falling, but the latest figures from Halifax have the average UK house price at £177,351 – indicating that a large proportion of sales will be unaffected by the change).