But as always with the UK property market, the hard cash involved will vary wildly. 

In some areas of the North-east, Northwest and South Wales the saving may be nothing, because first-time buyers’ homes are available below the £125,000 mark that attracts the first level of stamp duty.

Average savings will be just £1,000 according to estate agents Knight Frank – enough for a three-piece suite perhaps – but in London and its South East commuter belt there are real celebrations, with savings nearer the maximum of £5,000.

Of course, first-time buyers in these areas need much bigger deposits to get on the property ladder compared with elsewhere in Britain, because property costs so much more. 

Help-To-Buy deposits can be as low as 5 per cent but, according to Which?, the average deposit is 17 per cent. 

However to get the cheapest mortgage deals you need more like a 25 per cent deposit.

Jasjyot Singh, mortgages director for Halifax, says: “Today’s first-time buyers need to find an average deposit of £32,899 but if they do manage to purchase their first home they are on average £651 a year better off owning versus renting. 

“The number of first-time buyers has now exceeded 150,000 for the third time in four years – a level of momentum not seen since before the financial crisis. We will be lending over £10billion to help people own their first home.” 

Buyers should research schemes and incentives, says Halifax, such as Shared Ownership, where you buy between 25 per cent and 75 per cent of a property. 

It also advises checking your credit score a year before you plan to get a mortgage, then tracking it throughout the year to get the best start and speaking to a mortgage advisor to get a clear idea of your options. 

Using online calculators to work out how much you could borrow, how much deposit you need and what the monthly payments would be is also a sensible place to start. 

Developers that offer incentives include Barratt Homes, where sales director for Barratt Southern Counties Lynnette St Quintin says: “The stamp duty break, combined with continued availability of the Help To Buy equity loan scheme, means that there has never been a better time to buy a brand new home.”

Barratt Homes’ Montague Park in Wokingham, Berkshire, has two-bedroom apartments for sale from £296,995, available through Help To Buy, with a 5 per cent deposit of just under £15,000 and no stamp duty for first-time buyers (0844 811 4343; barratthomes.co.uk). 

South West London is out of reach to many new to the property market but Joseph Homes has a development of 27 apartments on the edge of Wimbledon from £295,000, where first-time buyers would save £4,750 in stamp duty (0207 499 7272; josephhomes.co.uk). 

The flats, a few minutes’ walk from Haydons Road railway station and 15 minutes from Wimbledon’s main station and shops, are also available through Help To Buy and come with a £500 cashback offer for first-time buyers with certain mortgage providers. 

And in Bedford, Storey Homes has a collection of 152 properties at De Montfort Place, from one-bedroom apartments to five-bedroom houses that come with fully fitted kitchens and bathrooms. 

One-bedroom flats are available from £190,000 and two-bedrooms from £245,000, with no stamp duty for first-time buyers and all with gated, allocated parking spaces (01582 742165; storey-homes.co.uk).

Bedford railway station is just over 10 minutes’ walk away and the M1 is just a few miles from the development. 

John Elliott, managing director of Millwood Designer Homes, says: “The Chancellor needs to help the top end of the market, too, as a there is a blockage which needs to be cleared. As Communities Minister Sajid Javid has previously suggested, older generations need to downsize but this is currently not feasible as the top end of the market is stagnant entirely due to the penal and excessive stamp duty levy.”