A jaw-dropping 575,000 property transactions are waiting to go through before the April 1^st Stamp Duty deadline set by the Chancellor, Rightmove has estimated.

Describing it as a ‘massive log jam’ the portal says the Stamp Duty cut-off, which will see home buyers pay significantly higher tax bills if their deals don’t complete by April 1^st, is one of the key reason for the backlog.

But one surprising feature of the data is that the extra demand hasn’t led to a sellers’ market recently, and prices have risen by 1.1% nationally on average, which is in line with previous years’ results.

Rightmove claims this is because “many new sellers are pricing sensibly, rather than getting carried away with over-optimistic pricing that is often associated with the traditionally buoyant Spring market”.

“While agents tell us that they have been working with both sellers and buyers to factor in the additional charges, many movers are understandably hoping to reduce their tax bill and keep their savings for themselves,” says Colleen Babcock (main image) property expert at Rightmove.

Her data shows that some 74,000 house moves are likely to complete after the April 1^st deadline.

“The pipeline of sales going through the completion process, as well as new sales being agreed, are signs of the strength of the important Spring housing market,” adds Babcock.

“It’s encouraging to see new activity continue to track above last year’s level.

“One of the clouds hanging over the market is persistently high mortgage rates. While there’s now more of an understanding among movers that rates aren’t heading back to previously ultra-low levels, many will have been hoping that they would drop more quickly.”