Savings garnered by the stamp duty holiday fall far short of the average price increase the intervention has helped inspire, says Search Acumen.

The 7% rise in house prices recorded by official government figures has added £17,265 on to the average property value, which compares to an average stamp duty saving on this type of property of £2,572.

Search Acumen says that the stamp duty holiday has helped create a 22% rise in monthly property transactions, which is the equivalent of 103,724 each month across England and Northern Ireland compared to an average of 84,691 pre-stamp duty holiday.

In total, Search Acumen estimates the tax break being responsible for 171,303 extra transactions since its introduction in July 2020.

It adds that the last time there was a stamp duty holiday, in 2008/09, transactions actually fell 27%, from 82,378 a month on average to 60,048.

House prices also dropped by 2% during this period.

Search Acumen director Andy Sommerville says: “Giving extra support for buyers has had many challenging consequences, from pushing up house prices and negating the average saving to heaping a heavy workload on time-pressured conveyancers.

“Property lawyers have been working around the clock to get people into their homes before the initial 31 March cut off. The conveyancing workload is unlikely to get any lighter given the holiday is now running until June and tapering through to September.

“In the long term, the industry needs to put conveyancing capacity – not to mention mental wellbeing – at the top of the agenda given the pressure law firms have been under to ensure clients complete on time.

“It is clear the traditional way of performing due diligence on transactions is getting in the way of efficiency, and we need to pivot quickly to digital, data-led solutions that can improve the experience for homebuyers and their advisers.”