Up to 300,000 property buyers could be exempt from paying stamp duty should the chancellor confirm his three-month extension to the scheme in next week’s Budget.

The chancellor Rishi Sunak is said to be considering an extension through to the end of June to prevent thousands of homes sales from falling through, the Times has reported.

However, a spokesperson for the Treasury said: “We do not comment on future tax policy outside of fiscal events.”

If a three-month stamp duty holiday extension is granted, Rightmove estimates that up to 300,000 additional property transactions in England could benefit from the tax cut.

The portal says that if as many as 300,00 transactions made it past the deadline, then property purchasers could save around £1.75bn in total.

This is based on the number of property transactions that completed each month in England between September and December 2020, according to data from HMRC.

Currently, Rightmove estimates that around 100,000 buyers who agreed a purchase last year are set to lose out, if the deadline stays as 31^st March.

Rightmove director of property data Tim Bannister said: “We know the stamp duty holiday was intended as a temporary stimulus for the market, but the delays we’ve seen in the home-moving process have been through no fault of the buyers and sellers who agreed a sale last year and who are now desperately trying to get their deals over the line.

“The delays have been a result of the huge number trying to go through, along with the many challenges of the people involved in the process working from home.”

Zoopla thinks that Rightmove’s prediction is an overestimation, and believes the rumoured stamp duty holiday extension until the end of June will actually see up to 234,000 additional property transactions in England benefit from the tax saving.

This would equate to a total estimated saving for those buyers of £984m, according to leading property website Zoopla.

The property website estimates that around 70,000 buyers would miss out if the deadline was in place for the 31^st March.

Gráinne Gilmore, head of research at Zoopla, commented: “Moving the stamp duty holiday deadline means that the 70,000 buyers we previously predicted would miss the stamp duty holiday are now ‘safe’. This figure was calculated on sales agreed late last year and early this year. However, with the extension looking likely to run until the end of June, up to 234,000 home movers who have already agreed a sale are set to benefit from this holiday, saving buyers a total of £984m.

“Whilst January and February are often busier times in the market, this year both demand levels and sales agreed have been noticeably higher than usual.

“Given that stamp duty land tax is traditionally a southern tax, it’s likely that buyers in London and the South East will benefit most from the extension. We are likely to see an uptick in demand in the coming weeks, particularly in these regions.”