Surveyors are leading the calls for a stamp duty change in the UK ahead of Chancellor George Osborne’s forthcoming Budget for 2014.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is urging a major rethink of the nation’s “out of date” thresholds.

It describes the existing system as an “archaic tax structure” that is distorting the housing market across the country.

At present, people are taxed a percentage of a home’s purchase price according to which value bracket it happens to fall into.

For instance, a buyer purchasing a residential property for under £250,000 would have to pay 1% of the price in tax, whereas someone buying a home for just one pound more would be forced to pay a tax bill of 3%.

RICS says this means many buyers are financially unable to venture above the threshold and vendors may have to price their home below what they may otherwise have sold it for.

To remedy the situation, it believes the government should consider a fairer, marginal rate to replace the current structure which sees few homes come onto the market at between £250,00 and £275,000 whether or not they are worth that price.

“This is a very important Budget for the Chancellor and one which will shape the economy in the run-up to the general election,” said Jeremy Blackburn, RICS head of UK policy.

“A major area of concern in the property sector, at present, is the current Stamp Duty system which is both out of date and distorts the market by taxing buyers disproportionately high amounts should they go just one pound over the pre-set thresholds.

“A more intelligent, modern way of taxing property sales is needed for a market which is changing at a rate of knots.”

Stephanie McMahon, Head of Research at Strutt & Parker, comments: “Stamp duty thresholds act as accidental barriers in the market with both buyers and sellers being less able to negotiate around them. A change in stamp duty, either through adopting a marginal rate, or by only taxing the portion of the agreed price over the threshold (as with income tax) would serve as an immediate boon. In a market where home sales are up and there were 800,000 transactions last year, but we are still quite a long way off the 1.2m pre-recession peak, all factors which assist valuation and negotiation should be encouraged.”

RICS also wants the government to consider adapting the hugely successful Help to Buy to suit the needs of individual regions, as well as information on exactly what is meant by new garden cities and precisely how they would benefit communities and the economy.