Property expert Kirstie Allsopp today told MPs that Britons are 'in a panic' about rumoured property tax changes at Rachel Reeves' Budget in two weeks' time.
The TV presenter, who fronts Location, Location, Location, warned speculation about new measures being planned by the Chancellor was hampering the housing market.
Appearing before the House of Commons Treasury Committee, Allsopp also called for stamp duty to be abolished, saying: 'People should be able to move house cheaply and easily.'
She argued the tax was 'damaging' the stock of homes available for first-time buyers hoping to get on the property ladder.
Ahead of the Budget on 26 November, it has been claimed Ms Reeves is plotting a radical shake-up of property taxes.
The Chancellor is reported to have ordered Treasury officials to examine reforms to the current stamp duty system.
This could include the owners of houses worth more than £500,000 having to pay a 'proportional property tax' based on the value of their properties when they sell up.
Allsopp described to the committee how stamp duty, which is paid by buyers on the purchase of a new property, was currently affecting behaviour in the housing market.
Property expert Kirstie Allsopp today told MPs that Britons are 'in a panic' about rumoured property tax changes at Rachel Reeves ' Budget in two weeks' time
Appearing before the House of Commons Treasury Committee, Allsopp also called for stamp duty to be abolished
'What I see is young people buying more expensive houses really than they can afford because they know they can't pay stamp duty twice,' Allsopp said.
'The other thing I'm seeing a lot of is people altering two and three-bed houses rather than moving, because the cost of moving is so high.
'I think we're actually damaging our first-time buyer housing stock because of stamp duty.'
Asked if speculation about stamp duty changes was having a pronounced impact at the moment, she added: 'Yes, that is absolutely what I'm seeing.
'That people are in a panic about it because it has gone up and they think it could go up again. There's a lot of speculation in the press.'
Allsopp later told the committee: 'When people move, they buy things.
'They don't buy apps, they don't buy experiences, they buy physical items, often bought from UK retailers if not made in the UK.
'That is an important economic driver. People should be able to move house cheaply and easily.'
The property expert also urged the Government 'not to see buying property as a sin'.
'At the moment, it's a sin tax,' Allsopp added. 'It's like cigarettes and alcohol and first-class travel.
'You are actually punished for wanting to buy a more expensive property than the previous one and that is wrong.
'It should remain a positive, aspirational thing to want to have a better home for your family. And we should encourage it.'
Allsopp continued: 'We have to have a more positive attitude both to landlords and to people who want to buy properties.'
She told the committee to 'remember why people move house', adding: 'It is often as a result of difficult circumstances.
'Death, divorce, moving nearer a family member who's got dementia. All of the reasons that people move house, they're mostly not frivolous, they're important.
'And a good home is good health.'
Professor Tim Leunig, a director at consultancy Public First, backed up Allsopp's case against stamp duty.
'Under Help to Buy, the most common-sized property bought by first-time buyers had three bedrooms,' he said.
'And that's just plain weird, because a three-bedroom house, particularly a new three bedroom house, is usually quite an expensive proposition.
'And people are doing that because then they only then have to pay stamp duty once and they only have to buy it on the first-time buyer rate.
'One of the big problems of the first-time buyer lower rate is it discourages you from buying a cheap first-time buyer property because you don't get much benefit, and you lose the right to the benefit later.'
Richard Donnell, executive director at Zoopla, told the committee that 40 per cent of first-time buyers looking to buy property through his website would pay stamp duty.
'That's up to nearly 80 per cent of first-time buyers in London,' he added. 'It's a tax that leans really heavily on London and the South East.
'I think what concerns me most, if you look at sales for over £500,000, it's 70 per cent of the receipts. Sales over £1million is 40 per cent of the receipts.'
Mr Donnell said the number of homes being sold 'does have a multiplier effect for the economy'.
'So you can see it has an impact on white goods, spend, getting people to do DIY on your property, improving your property,' he continued.
'So in a market where people aren't moving as often, that drives less economic impact.'
He said many people in southern England were looking to move out of their local area.
Stamp duty applies in England and Northern Ireland, with separate taxes in Scotland and Wales.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch recently piled pressure on Ms Reeves to do more to help home-buyers.
She used her Conservative Party conference speech to pledge her party would abolish stamp duty if it won the next general election.
Mrs Badenoch branded stamp duty a 'bad tax' and demanded action to 'free up our housing market'.
Stamp duty is estimated to have brought in £13.9 billion to the Treasury's coffers in the last financial year, but is widely seen to 'gum up' the property market.
