First time buyers that had been sitting on the fence made their move in the beginning of the year and there are likely few that are willing or capable of entering the housing market in the coming months.  There was a rush of first time buyers in the beginning of the year as the two year old stamp duty holiday came to an end on March 24.  This pushed the levels of home purchases and mortgage lending upwards in the first quarter of the year. 

In January there had been a total of 57,954 mortgage approvals in January according to figures from the Bank of England.  In March the number fell as first time home buyers had completed their mortgage deals early enough to meet the stamp duty holiday deadline that offered a 1 per cent savings on a property up to £250,000.  The level of mortgage approvals for March resulted in 49,860 which was little changed from February.

The stamp duty holiday helped increase house purchases in the first quarter but government officials deemed in ineffective overall during the two year period it was offered in helping boost the housing market.  The new effort that is being launched to help first time buyers is collaboration between government and home builders and is called NewBuy.  The new scheme will help first time buyers into newly constructed homes at deposit levels of 5 to 10 per cent which is much lower than what is currently available on the mortgage lending market alone.  This is seen as a helping hand to home builders and first time buyers but it will leave homeowners hoping to sell their starter home to new buyers without the incentive or assistance to first time buyers that was available with the stamp duty holiday.