The main incentive for house buyers to act quickly this month is to take advantage of the current stamp duty holiday.

The tax levy on house sales paid by purchasers is due to revert to the previous less advantageous terms on March 31 unless the Government has second thoughts.

When this page went to press, the situation was unchanged.

In the present market, there is no room for vendors to adopt the mindset of prospectors looking for gold.

Sellers with a property in the mid range bracket need to pitch the price at a level purchasers consider fair, emphasised Wycombe estate agent Nik Keegan this week.

He said: “You won’t get any response if you put a house on the market at an inflated figure. You won’t.

“Buyers will just walk away.

“Three and four bedroom semis worth £400,000 will sell for £400,000. If you try £420,000 it will sit there.”

Pictured is a three bedroom semi in Cedar Avenue, Hazlemere, one of five in the same road on the books at Keegan White’s Hazlemere office, and all sold subject to contract.

Number 39 Cedar Avenue - asking price half a million – has a wood burner in the lounge, patio doors in the dining room onto a really nice back garden, kitchen with breakfast bar, bathroom with shower over the bath, double garage, garden shed and space in the drive to park four cars.

Hertfordshire estate agent William Wells argues that the recent extension to the stamp duty exemption is “probably sensible but it won’t help many elderly and retired buyers, the group hardest hit by the pandemic.

“The tax reform was for all those buying properties below £500,000.

“It was introduced as a temporary measure in July last year in an effort to stimulate the market during the Covid crisis.

“And it worked. Transaction volumes and mortgage approvals jumped dramatically.

“But the problem is it only benefits one section of society.

“Many elderly and retired people who now want to downsize are prevented from doing so because of the eye-wateringly high tax bill they will face here in the pricier south east.

“These are the same individuals who have had little or no income from interest on their bank accounts in recent years, who held off selling their property while Brexit was underway and then were immediately hit by a global pandemic in which they were the group most vulnerable to infection.

“The triple whammy of impacts has left them the hardest hit.”