The race is on: just 40 days to beat the stamp duty deadline

First-time buyers in London face a huge hike, thanks to Reeves's Budget bombshell

- JONATHAN PRYNN

For first-time buyer Jack Harrold, the low point was when he woke up at 6am one day to find an email his solicitor had been sent two hours earlier. It told him the plan to complete on his one-bedroom purchase in Harringay by early March was unrealistic; it was more likely to be May before the deal got over the line.

For the actor, stepping on to the property ladder with his partner for the first time, it was the worst possible news. Not only would they miss the completion date deadline to qualify for a discount on their stamp duty bill, but they would also probably have to pay for a short-term rental, storage and two sets of moving fees.

The extra stamp duty alone is another £11,250, and with the other costs, the bill will probably approach £15,000. It is money they do not have and will mean either agreeing a price reduction with the vendor or pulling out of their £510,000 transaction. "It's all been bloody stressful," says Harrold, 28. He is not alone. His predicament is painfully familiar to thousands of increasingly anxious property debutants all over London as they enter the final 40 days before the stamp duty drawbridge is raised. For the first-time buyer market, we are now in - to quote former Manchester United football manager Sir Alex Ferguson - "squeaky bum time".

Goodness knows buying your first property is stressful enough at the best of times. But London property newbies are facing the added pressure of a hard deadline that they know will cost them up to £11,250 if they fail to hit it.