In today's (Wednesday 3 March) Budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced a three month, tapered extension of the stamp duty holiday for home-buyers.

This means that, until 30 June, those purchasing a property will not have to pay stamp duty tax on the first £500,000 of the value of their new home.

After this date, the threshold for stamp duty charges will be £250,000 until the end of September, when it will return to the usual rate of £125,000.

What does this mean for local home-buyers?

We spoke to Emma from Frodsham's Alder Rose Mortgage Services, to discuss what the announcement will mean for local people in the process of buying a property.

"At the moment, we've got a lot of clients who are facing a lot of pressure to complete by the end of the month, so the stamp duty holiday extension is going to help those who might be struggling," Emma says.

"And for those who were going to miss out just by a month, this has really helped!

"There are also some people who might be able to begin searching for a house now and still benefit from the holiday. For those who wanted to move after Christmas but who didn't find a property straightaway, the extension might reignite their desire to keep looking."

Finally, "People hoping to buy a home worth less that £250,000 have got a lot more time to get themselves in order because of the tapered extension into September.

"It would obviously have been nice if the extension was for another year, but this is all good news because it keeps the housing market going!"

And what about mortgages?

Emma also talked about the Chancellor's plans for a new low-deposit mortgage guarantee scheme, which will provide government-backed mortgages for 95 per cent of the value of the property.

95 per cent loan-to-value mortgages, which will be available for homes costing up to £600,000, require a deposit of just 5 per cent, helping first-time buyers to get onto the property ladder.

With lenders taking more caution due to the economic impact of Covid-19, low-deposit mortgages had become scarce in recent months.

"When Covid first hit last year, the first response from many lenders was to reduce the amount that they would lend," Emma explains. "So the overall loan-to-value of mortgages dropped, sometimes to 65 per cent or less, and it's taken months for it to return to a 90 per cent product.

"We found in September that there were only 44 mortgage products available at 90 per cent loan-to-value, and now there are 277. The 95 per cent mortgages will help encourage this trend.

"It's going to be really good for first-time buyers, especially in Frodsham because prices are so high. If they get that support on a house worth £200,000, they will only have to pay a £10,000 deposit."