A renowned estate agent from Hitchin has reacted to the government's extension of the stamp duty holiday.

The Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to announce that the pandemic measure will be extended from its current deadline at the end of next month up to the end of June, it was been widely reported.

Successful Hitchin estate agent Adam Day, leader of the UK arm of eXp, shared his views with Nub News about the possibility of homebuyers rushing to meet the March deadline.

"If the rumours are to believed, then the stamp duty holiday is going to be extended for three months," he explained, adding: 'While this is welcome news in the short term, we really are just kicking the can down the road.

"All we're doing is creating another bounce, with another glut of sales being agreed and then backing up as the system gets overwhelmed with demand to complete by the new deadline.

"This could lead to lots of sales falling through because buyers can't afford the increased stamp duty overnight."

The Chancellor is expected to officially announce the extension in his budget on March 3.

Under the current rules, announced by the Treasury last year in a bid to fire up the property market, the stamp duty threshold has been temporarily raised from £125,000 to £500,000 for property sales in England and Northern Ireland.

Adam added: "A staggered approach of discounting stamp duty over a period of months would stop the cliff edge of buyers and sellers scrambling to complete before the deadline, whether that be the current deadline, or any new deadline."

See Nub News at the weekend for our regular property of the week section.