Stamp duty revenue soars despite reforms

Stamp duty revenue raised in England and Wales increased by an estimated £1.5 billion to £7.7 billion in the year to March - easily outstripping the £6.2 billion in the year to March 2008 at the peak of the last housing boom. 

Research by Lloyds Bank shows that a higher number of residential transactions and increased prices are estimated to have led to a significant rise in stamp duty revenues in the past year with the average homeowner now spending £9,600on it as they move up the housing ladder.

Homeowners stay in their homes for 7.8 years on average, and take three steps up the ladder in their lifetime. 

Based on these findings, the research looked at those homeowners who bought their first property in 1999, their second in 2007 and their third in 2015, living in typical homes at each step on the ladder.

One in three first time buyers paid stamp duty in 1999. Now over two thirds pay with the proportion of first time buyers paying it more than doubling over the past 16 years from 32 per cent in 1999 to 66 per cent in 2015.In London and the south east over nine in 10 first time buyers now face paying Stamp Duty on their purchase. 

The proportion of existing owners who move who pay stamp duty has risen from 68 per cent in 1999 to 85 per cent in 2015. In the southern regions of England more than nine out of 10 homemovers in this category now pay stamp duty on their purchase. 

The highest overall Stamp Duty costs are faced by buyers in London and the South East. In London home buyers pay four times as much as the average for England and Wales - an average of £38,600 over their lifetime based on these ‘three moves’.

The lowest lifetime stamp duty costs are in Wales, at an average of £3,800.