Stamp duty payments rise 17% to £8.3bn

Homebuyers in England and Wales paid £8.3 billion in stamp duty in 2016 - £1.2 billion more than in 2015, according to Lloyds Bank research. This rise reversed the £571 million decline between 2014 and 2015, which resulted from the stamp duty reforms that came into place in December 2014.

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Rozi Jones
31st July 2017
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"Rising house prices have caused stamp duty payments to continue to increase despite the reforms that came into effect from December 2014."

The average home owner is now paying £12,693 in stamp duty over their lifetime as they move up the housing ladder. A typical first-time buyer would have paid an average stamp duty of £758 in March 2001, £1,989 for their second home in March 2009 and £9,946 for their final step in March 2017.

The highest overall stamp duty bills are faced by buyers in London and the South East. In London, homebuyers pay a total of £40,576, 320% more than the average for England and Wales. In the South East, the overall bill is £20,133. The lowest bills are in the North (£4,212) and Wales (£4,489).

The proportion of first-time buyers paying stamp duty has risen in the past 16 years from 47% in 2001 to 78% in 2017.

In Greater London, 100% of first-time buyers face paying stamp duty with 98% of first-time buyers paying the tax in the South East. The only region where fewer than half of first-time buyers pay stamp duty is the North 41%.

Andrew Mason, Lloyds Bank mortgage products director, commented: “Rising house prices have caused stamp duty payments to continue to increase despite the reforms that came into effect from December 2014. As a result, the £8.3 billion raised in stamp duty in 2016 was more than £2 billion higher than at the peak of the last housing boom in 2007.

“The average home buyer pays £12,693 in stamp duty in total as they move up the housing ladder. This average, however, disguises substantial regional differences with homemovers, with those in Greater London paying over £40,000. Escalating stamp duty payments have contributed to significant increases in moving costs in recent years.”

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