Increasing the stamp duty threshold to £500,000 would allow 86 per cent of home movers to escape the tax, calculations by Reallymoving show.
The website also found that if the Chancellor increases the stamp duty threshold in line with what has been rumoured, nearly 80 per cent of first-time buyers in London will be freed from the tax.
Under the current system only 25 per cent of London first-time buyers pay no stamp duty.
If the threshold is also raised for existing property owners who are moving home, 86 per cent of these purchases across England would escape stamp duty, as would 55 per cent of all onward purchases in London.
London first-time buyers would stand to make an average saving of £5,845.
Meanwhile, in the South East region, the proportion of first-time buyers paying no stamp duty at all would increase from 65 per cent to 97 per cent.
Reallymoving chief executive Rob Houghton says: “This tax giveaway could have a significant impact on the market, particularly in more expensive locations such as London, where the majority of first-time buyers have still been liable to pay stamp duty, and the South East.
“First-time buyers fortunate enough to have secure jobs and large deposits stand to benefit the most, however, and many still face considerable challenges including an insecure jobs market and the withdrawal of higher loan to value mortgages.
“Those who are in a strong financial position and feel encouraged to commit will make a considerable saving which is far better invested in their first home, helping them to meet lender deposit requirements and increase their equity, than handed over to the Treasury.
“Those who are buying and selling stand to benefit significantly too, with almost nine out of ten transactions by existing homeowners potentially avoiding the tax, not to mention the positive knock on effect further up the chain where buyers would still be liable to pay stamp duty but would benefit from greater transaction volumes across the market.”
