Almost 70,000 first-time buyers have benefited from the Stamp Duty exemption since it was unveiled in November.

Chancellor Philip Hammond used his Budget at the end of last year abolish the tax for first-time buyers on the first £300,000 of a property purchase on homes worth up to £500,000.

Government data out this week claims as of the end of March, 69,000 first-time buyers have already benefited from the exemption.

The HMRC data shows £159m was claimed in first time buyers’ relief between November 22 and March 31. The majority of the relieved Stamp Duty was from transactions in the south east, London and the east of England, accounting for £40m, £38m and £25m respectively.

The average amount of relief on transactions was £2,300. London had the highest average of £4,300, while Northern Ireland had the lowest average of £800.

Commenting on the figures, Mark Hayward, chief executive of NAEA Propertymark, said: “First-time buyers have traditionally been the most vulnerable buyers operating in the market, but the figures indicate that the Stamp Duty relief is starting to make an impact.

“From December to March this year, sales to the group were up to 29% on average, compared to 27% for the same period the year before.

“While this is indeed an upward swing, sales haven’t rocketed. This could be because first-time buyers are now thought to be holding off on making purchases – typically outside of London – opting instead to save for longer to maximise the full Stamp Duty relief.

“The other reason is that the cost of buying is still very high, and first-time buyers are still finding it difficult to save for their deposit.

“As the cost of living continues to rise – with consumer price inflation standing at 2.3% in March – we still have a long way to go to make the dream of owning a home accessible to all, but this is definitely a step in the right direction.”

Overall residential transactions liable for Stamp Duty have been on the slide.

HMRC data shows the number of residential transactions that were liable for Stamp Duty fell by 21% to 238,200 in the first three months of 2018.

Two thirds of residential transactions were liable for Stamp Duty, the lowest proportion since the first quarter of 2014.

Liable residential transactions fell by 31% to 157,800 in the first quarter of 2018, HMRC said.

The number of residential non-liable transactions increased by 10% to 80,300.

This gives a total of 238,100 liable and non-liable residential transactions during the first quarter of 2018, down 21% on the end of last year.

The Treasury were still left with Stamp Duty receipts of £1.8bn for residential property in the first quarter. This was a ten-year high for the financial year to the end of March but down 25% on the fourth quarter of 2017.

Almost half, 46%, of residential receipts were from additional dwellings transactions, of which £364m were estimated to be from the additional 3% rate, HMRC said.