Yes, pretty much.

Especially at that figure, they'll probably push as close to the stamp duty threshold as possible, whilst remaining attractively underneath it.

Paul Ripley probably knows more about this stuff than me, as I just deal with accounts rather than purchasing, but in my experience, you can always look to buy the property for 10% less than the asking price. You wont always get it, but there are enough people out there being advised and acting on their own greed to try and get more than the value.