George Osborne's Stamp Duty Bonanza

By Ed Conway, Economics Editor

Stamp duty revenues - one of the most reliable measures of property market activity - are back to the same level they were just before the economic crisis in 2008, in the latest evidence of the housing boom.

Last month homebuyers paid £852m in stamp duty to the Exchequer, according to figures from HM Revenue & Customs - slightly higher than the £830m-a-month  it was earning at the peak of the boom in 2007/08.

The figures come amid growing evidence that, thanks to record low interest rates and the Chancellor's Help to Buy scheme, the housing market is experiencing a fully-fledged boom.

House prices rose by 3.8% across the country in the past year, with London experiencing close to double-digit price growth.

It is understood that property market activity in prime parts of central London was largely responsible for the sharp increase in stamp duty revenues, which have now doubled from the troughs they suffered in 2010 and 2011.

In the Budget the Chancellor forecast that he would earn £7.7bn in property-related stamp duty this year. He looks likely to beat this estimate by more than a billion pounds.

However, news that stamp duty revenues have exceeded the pre-crisis peak will also cause further concerns among economists, who have warned that the property market is becoming inflated in much the way it did before the crash.

They warn that, far from rebalancing, Britain's economy is becoming reliant, once again, on debt and the housing market.

The Chancellor has also enjoyed an extra fillip from new measures aimed at preventing property investors avoid stamp duty by "wrapping" their investment properties up in a company.

The punitive fees levied on these investors generated £78m for the Exchequer in September and October alone.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the overall government deficit dropped from £8.2bn in October 2012 to £8.1bn this October.

The figures are also likely to have been pushed higher by the fact that stamp duty tax rates have been lifted, and new higher rates have been introduced for the most expensive properties.

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