GORDON BROWN'S stamp duty holiday has been condemned as an "empty gesture" that offers no real help to Scottish first-time buyers and will not get the housing market moving again.

The government last week announced the decision to scrap stamp duty for one year on homes worth less than £175,000, as part of a package of reforms intended to revive the flagging housing market.

Homebuyers previously paid stamp duty of 1% on properties worth between £125,000 and £250,000, so a £50,000 uplift at first seems generous. But housing experts are sceptical about the effects of the temporary tax relief. Alasdair Mackenzie of CKD Galbraith, a Scottish estate agent, says: "It is an empty gesture - and is unlikely to influence a first-time buyer to enter the market. The announcement was perhaps more about politics than property."

The average first-time buyer pays £108,176 for a property in Scotland, according to the Bank of Scotland. The price is under the previous threshold of £125,000, so the increase to £175,000 will not affect the typical first-time buyer in the region. They did not pay stamp duty before and they will not pay stamp duty now. Of course, house prices vary across Scotland, and 11% of first-time buyers in the region will still be caught by the tax net. But experts argue that it doesn't add up to much of a saving. James Scott-Lee of RICS says: "At best, the relief will save buyers 1% of £175,000, or £1750. But we estimate the average upfront costs of buying a home at £27,738, so it's a drop in the ocean."

The biggest expense is usually the deposit - and there is no government help with saving for a deposit. Andrew Perratt, head of residential sales at Savills in Glasgow, says: "If you are a first-time buyer and you need to find a £20,000 deposit, potential tax relief of £1750 won't make any difference."

The government also offered no lifeline to borrowers who are struggling to arrange a mortgage in today's market. The credit crunch has strangled the mortgage market. There are now fewer deals than a year ago, with higher prices and more restrictions.

Last summer, you could fix for two years at just over 6%. Rates are coming down, but if you are searching for a mortgage at the moment, you are more likely to pay closer to 7%. Lenders are also more choosy about their customers. It is almost impossible to get a mortgage unless you have a deposit - and the bigger the deposit the better the deal. So, many first-time buyers are frozen out. Melanie Bien, director of Savills Private Finance, says: "The biggest challenge will be to find a mortgage. Borrowers who don't have a 10% deposit will struggle to get finance, while even those with a deposit of this size will face the highest mortgage rates."

Let's say you buy a property for £175,000. You would need at least a 10% deposit to secure a decent mortgage, preferably 20%. In other words, you would have to put down £17,500 or £35,000. If you manage to fix for two years at 6.99% with a 10% deposit, your monthly payments would be £1112.17 - almost as much as the one-off tax saving.

Perratt says: "If the government really wants to kickstart the housing market, it needs to bring about a sea change in the attitude of the banks and building societies.

"If people are to start moving again, we need some cash to flow into the market."

The stamp duty relief is also temporary - and that could cause problems further down the line. Mackenzie says: "It could ultimately distort the market. What happens if everyone piles in to take advantage of the relief before it is withdrawn in September next year? I don't think the government has really thought it through."

The stamp duty holiday could even create a ! "dead zone" between £175,000 and £200,000, with sellers under pressure to cut the price of their homes to within the new tax-free band.

But let's say it works. Let's assume that first-time buyers flood back to the market on the back of the tax holiday. Is now a good time to buy? Or could the government be accused of tempting people back into property at the worst possible time?

House prices across Scotland have fallen by just over 2% in the past year, according to the latest figures from the Bank of Scotland. The Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre has recorded a 6.5% drop in the average property price in Edinburgh - the first fall in the city for 37 years.

If you buy now and prices slump further, your £1750 saving could be wiped out by the fall in the value of your home. So maybe the best advice for first-time buyers is to ignore government sweeteners and hope that prices come down to more affordable levels, with or without the intervention of the prime minister.

CASE STUDY

Leanne Craig, 21, bought a one-bedroom flat in Edinburgh in the middle of August. The property cost £130,000 so she had to pay stamp duty of £1300.

If she had waited a few weeks, she would have been spared the expense following the government's announcement of a stamp-duty holiday for all properties under £175,000.

Craig, a secretary, says: "It is very disappointing because the whole process is so expensive. I could have bought some furniture for the flat with the money I used to pay the stamp-duty bill."

Although Craig welcomes the decision on stamp duty, she thinks first-time buyers also need help with deposits and mortgages. "It was very difficult to get a mortgage.

I eventually got a deal with the Halifax, but I couldn't have bought the flat without help from my dad."