Spencer West partner Lisa Wilson has urged the Chancellor to cut stamp duty on additional properties in the 28 October Budget to clear a backlog of unsold ex-rental homes left empty after the pre-deadline Section 21 sell-off.
Resolution Foundation has proposed replacing Council Tax and Stamp Duty in England with a 0.7 percent annual tax on property value paid by occupiers.
HMRC says stamp tax receipts rose 8 percent in the first four months of 2026-27, suggesting property tax drag is still strong even as the housing market cools.
The Fairer Share tax petition has passed 100,000 signatures, pushing the landlord SDLT surcharge and wider property tax debate toward a possible Commons hearing after ministers defended the current rules.
Rightmove says the average asking price of a newly listed home fell 1.0 percent in July to £372,359, while homes for sale stayed close to a 12-year high and first-half sales agreed ran 6 percent below last year.
MPs have told ministers to launch a consultation on alternatives to stamp duty by the end of 2026, arguing that the tax is slowing transactions, hurting affordability and discouraging investment in empty homes.
Centre for London says replacing stamp duty and council tax with a proportional property tax could free up 79,000 extra homes a year and raise £912 million for social housebuilding.
UK house prices fell 0.8 percent month on month in June while annual growth slowed to 2.1 percent, with Nationwide saying the market softened after April’s higher stamp duty costs fed through.
Stamp duty tax receipts slipped in the opening month of the new financial year, giving landlords another sign that higher transaction costs are still weighing…
Landlords accounted for 13.3 percent of all home purchases across Great Britain between January and April, the highest share since 2016, as more rental properties…
Landlords and second-home buyers now account for most Stamp Duty receipts in more than half of English councils, according to new Paragon Bank analysis of…
HMRC says UK residential property transactions reached their highest monthly level in a year in March, but the headline rebound came against a badly distorted…
Homes bought and resold within 12 months made up just 1.5 percent of transactions across England and Wales in 2025, the lowest share in more…
Buy-to-let investment has fundamentally shifted from southern England to the Midlands and North over the decade since the stamp duty surcharge was introduced, with new…
Property transactions across prime London postcodes fell 31 percent in the second half of 2025, with average monthly completions dropping from 1,431 to just 987…
