There has been a dramatic increase in the number of potential first time buyers applying for a new home owner loan or mortgage and looking to buy their first home in a bid to try and beat the stamp duty holiday deadline, according to Connells surveyors and valuation.

First time buyers have been struggling to get onto the housing and home owner loan market for some time now, largely due to restrictions on loans from bank and building societies, as well as increased deposit requirements to meet maximum loan to value levels.

According to Connells, the number of property valuations for home owner loan purposes increased by around 43 per cent during the month of January this year, compared with twelve months previously and around a third of these valuations were for first time buyer loans.

In fact, first time buyer loan valuations increased by the largest proportion in January, compared with other sectors of the home owner loan market, accounting for 32 per cent of all valuations, which is the highest level since June last year and has increased by 52 per cent on figures for the same period twelve months ago.

With the current stamp duty holiday for first time buyers purchasing a property for less than £250,000, due to finish at the end of March this year, many potential first time buyers are now rushing to beat the deadline and potentially save themselves £2,500 on the overall cost of buying a house.

With lenders introducing new cheap loan deals for first time buyers, many of which allow much higher loan to value levels than previously, coupled with low property prices and particularly low interest rates on loans, which seem likely to be around for some time, now could be the best time ever to buy a first home, with the stamp duty holiday becoming the icing on the cake.