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Estate agents are braced for a slump in demand and cooling prices for houses and flats as a new stamp duty tax on investment properties and second homes knocks the wind out of Britain's buy-to-let boom.  Buyers raced to complete deals ahead of Friday's introduction of a 3 per cent surcharge on Stamp Duty ,this resulted in a 71 per cent surge in home sales by value to £17bn in the two weeks. The stamp-duty stampede to buy second homes led to £17 billion of house sales across the UK over the last two weeks - £5.4 billion of which were in London. Around £3.4 billion of properties were exchanged yesterday alone, a 141 per cent increase on the same day last year, as solicitors cancelled holidays and worked until midnight to rush through completions before the April 1 deadline.  Estate agents, sellers and buyers delivered documents by hand across London to avoid postal delays.  "In one case, we even rushed down to the Eurostar ...