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“The UK already imposes the highest property taxes in the world, as a proportion of GDP, with the top end of the market bearing the biggest burden,” complains Nicholas Leeming, from online property firm Zoopla.co.uk. “The introduction of this penal seven per cent stamp duty rate is flawed and misguided, in our view.”

What’s more, it could encourage foreign buyers to start looking for other locations in which to invest, reports Peter Rollings, chief executive officer of agents Marsh and Parsons.

“This policy will disproportionately target London, where house prices are in a league of their own,” he says. “It risks killing the goose that lays the golden egg.”

However, at the same time as delivering a sharp bite to the hand that feeds, the increase in stamp duty will, its critics claim, be toothless.

“Our research suggests £1.5 billion is an overly optimistic estimate of the revenue the scheme will raise,” says Richard Sexton, director of e.surv chartered surveyors.

Other experts believe that increased stamp duty will prove an inconvenience for wealthy buyers, rather than a serious repellent.

“I doubt the seven per cent stamp duty will put off a serious buyer,” says James Wyatt, managing director of Surrey-based agent Barton Wyatt. He frequently sells £8 million houses to foreign clients, both on the Wentworth Estate and in the St George’s Hill area of Weybridge (where the dwindling number of UK residents includes Sir Cliff Richard).

Wyatt’s view is echoed by Louise Vaughan, London head of Prospect Property Search. “Wealthy Russians are buying in London because they’re terrified Putin is going to do some kind of property grab. They know we’ve got strong laws that can protect them,” she says. “They’re not going to be scared off by a two per cent increase in stamp duty.”

Indeed, with political upheaval unsettling many a Middle Eastern investor, the experience of recent years has been that overseas buyers aren’t put off by mere price.

“The prime London market has absorbed a 42 per cent price rise since 2009, so we think it will absorb the stamp duty increase,” says Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank. “That said, higher stamp duty means there will be a greater incentive to improve properties rather than move up the ladder. Also, some wealthy buyers may decide to save £59,000 in stamp duty by buying a £1.9 million house in the country, rather than a £2.2 million property in London.”

Even so, they may still be hit by the Budget, as renovations on listed buildings are no longer VAT exempt. It is a change that will affect many less wealthy householders, too. “Suddenly adding 20 per cent to the cost of repairs and alterations is going to wreck a lot of people’s plans,” says Kate Pugh, chief executive of the Heritage Alliance. “There is going to be a huge outcry over this.”

Furthermore, George Osborne has introduced a 15 per cent stamp duty for those who buy through offshore companies. This will close a tax loophole. Nice idea, is the general response, but implementing it is going to be the hard part.

“Policing the clampdown will be difficult, and some transactions may slip through the net,” says Nicholas Leeming, of Zoopla.co.uk.

“One option may be to force agents to declare sales prices,” suggests Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, director of London search agent Banda Property. “But that would encourage off-market deals.”

Lucian Cook, director of residential research at Savills agrees: “For all the talk of eliminating stamp duty evasion, this move will provide an even stronger incentive to property lawyers to dream up new, perfectly legal avoidance schemes.”

So the higher rate of stamp duty will raise some extra revenue from the world’s super-rich. But their inventive ways to minimise their tax liabilities may be difficult to curtail.

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