The effect of the government’s decision to slash the property transfer tax from 6% to 2% in an effort to boost the housing market has been short lived, the AD reports on Friday.

After a 30% rise in new mortgage requests in July, the number of requests halved again in August, the paper says. It bases its claim on a survey of estate agents.
New rules making it harder to borrow money to renovate property were introduced by the banks in August.