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The amount of stamp duty handed over by first-time buyers has more than quadrupled since a holiday from the tax ended, fresh analysis reveals.
Those buying a starter home paid some £408million in stamp duty land tax since April 2025, up from just £101million in the previous year.
Plus, the Treasury has raked in more than half of the stamp duty paid by first-time buyers from just one region, according to property portal Rightmove.
It analysed the number of zero to two bedroom properties sold in England to calculate the amount of stamp duty on starter homes raked in by the Exchequer.
Young buyers have been forced to stump up thousands of extra pounds in tax in the past year
Stamp duty is payable by those who purchase a property over a certain threshold.
The thresholds at which stamp duty start to be payable have not risen permanently since they were first introduced in 2017. However, buyers had enjoyed lower tax bills since autumn 2022, when the threshold at which stamp duty is payable was lifted.
During the lower-rate period, stamp duty wasn’t payable on the first £250,000 of a property for most homeowners in England, but this has now been returned to £125,000. There are varying rates for each chunk of your property’s value.
But first-time buyers have a different rate. For them, the threshold was lowered from £425,000 to £300,000 in April 2025. Anything over this is taxed at 5 per cent.
It means that for a first-time buyer snapping up a £400,000 property, some £5,000 needs to be paid to the Treasury. Between autumn 2022 and April 2025, no tax would be payable on that same home.
In a further blow to buyers’ budgets, this relief is removed for those buying a starter home for more than £500,000. This cliff-edge will particularly sting for those buying properties in expensive areas.
Before the cut to the tax-free allowance, some 62 per cent of homes for sale in England were priced under this first-time buyer threshold, and were therefore free from stamp duty.
However, now just 41 per cent of homes in England are in this price bracket. It means those buying a starter home in pricier areas have less to choose from if they do not wish to pay the levy.
Is stamp duty stifling housing market?
This punitive tax on moving homes is blocking the housing market, experts say.
Some argue that older homeowners who would typically downsize to a smaller property to unlock equity are stuck in larger houses with empty bedrooms as they cannot afford to pay the thousands of pounds in stamp duty.
Meanwhile, homeowners who want to take that second step on the property ladder are stuck in homes too small for their growing families because they cannot afford to shell of more money in tax.
Nathan Emerson, chief executive of estate agent membership body Propertymark said: ‘Stamp duty continues to act as a barrier to entry and wider market movement and should be reviewed. The reduction in the threshold has not only raised upfront costs but also reduced the availability of suitable homes, particularly in higher-value areas.
‘What agents are seeing in practice is a growing regional imbalance. Buyers in London and the South are disproportionately affected, highlighting how current national thresholds no longer reflect local market conditions.’
More than half (53 pc) of the stamp duty paid by first-time buyers is from those buying property in London.
Trailing behind is the south east, where buyers paid 23 per cent of the £408million.
At the other ends of the scale are buyers in the northeast, who paid just 0.3 per cent of the amount. Just 1 per cent of the stamp duty paid by those buying a starter home is form those in each of the East Midlands, and Yorkshire and the Humber.
Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove, said: ‘Far more homes in London and the southeast now sit above the zero-rate limit. This reduces choice and increases the savings needed before buyers can even consider moving.
‘With the majority of first-time buyer stamp duty now coming from a small number of higher priced regions, it highlights how a single national threshold no longer reflects local housing markets.
‘A more regionally aligned approach to stamp duty could better support first-time buyers where affordability pressures are greatest, while also helping to encourage more movement across the housing ladder.’