HOUSING developers on Teesside are coming up with bigger and better offers to encourage sales, amid reports of a national slump for first-time buyers.

Deals include a £12,000 cash giveaway and money off the latest gadgets.

According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the housing market remains “stuck in the doldrums” as 22% more surveyors reported price falls rather than rises in June, compared to 17% the previous month - in the institute’s weakest reading since October.

But developers on Teesside say incentives are working and house sales remain steady, in spite of a seven-month low for first-time buyers after “crucial” stamp duty exemption was withdrawn.

Taylor Wimpey is offering house-buyers at its Stainton Mews development in Middlesbrough £1,000 every month for the first year they are in their new home.

Sales manager Jacky McKeown said: “There are plenty of people out there who want to buy, it’s just a matter of trying to make it work for them financially.”

Community in a Cube at Middlehaven has extended its Time2Buy scheme, which helps people get on the property ladder, for another year after it ended in June.

Other offers include free carpets, and white goods and £1,500 off technology and designer clothes.

Matt Sibley, of CIAC financial advisor B-Advised, said: “We’re a long way from the peaks of 2005-2007, but there is still activity. We get a lot of interest from first-time buyers.”

Meanwhile, lenders and estate agents have reported a rush to complete deals ahead of the deadline for the stamp duty exemption withdrawal in March, with sales which would have otherwise taken place later in the year being bottlenecked.

Lenders have also been tightening their borrowing criteria amid the weak economy and the eurozone crisis, and borrowers with smaller deposits are expected to have a particularly tough time getting a deal in the coming months.