<p>The end of the stamp duty holiday is unlikely to greatly affect the UK housing market and has had only a “limited” effect in distorting it, according to Knight Frank.</p> <p><span>Tom Bill, the real estate consultancy’s head of UK residential research, pointed to OnThe Market data from March which showed a 30% increase year-on-year in the number of properties going under offer in England and Wales.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>But, he said, a breakdown of these figures by price band showed that the stamp duty holiday had not boosted activity “to a greater extent” in lower value markets. Below the £500,000 threshold, “in which the stamp duty holiday creates the largest saving”, the increase in this type of activity was a modest 26%.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>Meanwhile, the £500,000 to £1 million price band experienced the largest rise in the number of properties going under offer - at 57%. This was 40% for the £1 million to £1.5 million band, with the above £1.5 million bracket seeing the lowest rise at 10%.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>Knight Frank’s exchange data also showed “the limited extent to which the holiday has distorted the market”, with the number of exchanges above the stamp duty holiday threshold showing notable increases against the five …