Propertymark has called on the government to review stamp duty thresholds which were last set seven years ago.

The move from the estate agent’s body comes as the stamp duty tax holiday ends today (30 September) in England and Northern Ireland, after being introduced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak last July to revive an industry that had stalled due to lockdown restrictions.

The initial holiday meant home buyers didn’t have to pay stamp duty on the first £500,000 of purchase, falling to the first £250,000 from 1 July.

However, the nil-payment threshold will return to the pre-pandemic level of £125,000 from 1 October.

Market demand, sales and average prices have all risen since last July, with the holiday “giving the sector a shot in the arm”, says Propertymark.

Propertymark chief policy advisor Mark Hayward says the relief period has been “a great success, creating a healthy and flowing market which has encouraged more people to buy and sell”.

Hayward adds: “With the holiday at an end, it is now timely to review the outdated levels at which people start paying stamp duty to reflect market demand, average house price and wage growth, given the basic, pre-Covid rates have not changed since 2014.”

The body does not offer a view on what the new thresholds should be.

The average number of buyers per estate agent branch a month rose by more than 100 between July 2020-August 2021 during the holiday, says the association.

There was an average of 445 buyers per branch during that time, which is higher than the average of 340 between April 2019 and June 2020 in the 14-months before the stamp duty holiday.

Sales agreed per branch also shot up 41 per cent to an average of 11.3 a month during the relief between July 2020-August 2021, higher than the 8 in the 14-months prior.

Propertymark adds: “And fewer homes sold for below the asking price and more above during the stamp duty holiday, showing the sector turned from a buyers’ market to a sellers’ market.”

Between July 2020-August 2021 when the holiday was introduced, 45% of monthly agreed sales were less than the asking price, as opposed to 80% in the 14 months prior, the body points out.

More instead sold above the asking price – an average of 19% during the stamp duty holiday as opposed to just 4% in the months before it was introduced. At its peak, 40% of sales agreed were above the asking price in June 2021.

Office for National Statistics figures show average house prices lifted 7% higher in England to £271,000 and jumped by 9% to £153,000 in Northern Ireland in the 12 months after the relief came into force, between July 2020 and July 2021.

ONS data also shows that the number of transactions rose by a quarter during the suspension of the tax compared to the previous 12 months. In England, sales jumped 25.8% to 1,410,970, while they lifted 26.5% in Northern Ireland to 37,400.