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The stamp duty holiday ended on the 31st December and only houses under £125,000 are now exempt from the tax.

In September 2009 all properties up to £175,000 were declared free of stamp duty, which would have saved up to £1,750 on a property at the top of the scale. During 2009 51 % of all house sales involved no stamp duty at an estimated cost to the Treasury of £615 million although the Council of Mortgage lenders believe this figure will be more in the region of £500 million.

The average price of a three bedroomed semi is now £167,600 according to the Halifax.

Prices have increased by £14,000 since April due to a property shortage and an increase in demand. Property prices are just 1.6% lower than a year ago, which is a big improvement on the 17.7% annual fall up to the end of April this year.

Some of the best mortgage deals of the last quarter can now be found but customers are advised to act quickly before the deals disappear...

Leading economists are predicting that house prices will fall by up to 10% next year and will not return to their peak until 2014.

This forecast is the result of a survey of 14 major economists and estate agents. They believe that rising unemployment and home loan rationing by the banks will keep prices down.

One company Capital Economics say that the market is overvalued. The company predicts a 10% fall next year although others including Fitch and Savills are predicting a fall of between six and eight per cent.

It has been revealed that UK house prices rose 0.5 percent in October. This is the 6th month in a row that has seen a rise, although the pace has begun to slow down. The end of the traditionally strong summer season will be partly due to the slowing of the momentum.

July and August saw a rise of 1.4 percent, and Septembers gain was 0.9 percent. Experts already predicted that house price inflation would moderate as strong increases over the summer months would not be sustainable into the Autumn and Winter.

The Chancellor Alistair Darling promised £20 billion in home loans to boost the housing market in the recent budget. A further £50 billion was pledged to guarantee loans between banks and to get credit moving. He said that the Government intends to encourage an increase in mortgage lending and that we should see an increase in the number of mortgage deals available.

The freeze on stamp duty for homes worth under £175,000 will continue until the end of the year. This should mean that 60% of homebuyers would not have to pay stamp duty. However the National Association of Estate Agents spokesperson said that this had been a missed opportunity to get rid of the tax all together.

There is good new for first time buyers this week as HSBC announce new deals with deposits as low as 10%. Experts hope that other lenders will begin to compete. These deals have not been around since Autumn 2007 when the best offers started to dry up.

The new deals are not amazing when compared to deals in the past but they are the first affordable loans for first time buyers for some time. With a 10% deposit a borrower could take out a two year fixed rate deal at 4.99%. There is an arrangement fee of £1,499. A tracker mortgage with a current rate of 4.59% has an arrangement fee of £999.

Homeowners with savings earning very low rates of interest could save themselves a lot of money by using their savings and current accounts to cut mortgage bills.

Offset loans have traditionally been more expensive in the UK although they have always been popular in other countries. With an offset deal borrowers set their savings and current accounts against their mortgage.