The Stamp Duty hike which comes into force on 1 April 2025 could cost homebuyers thousands of pounds, according to analysis from Coventry Building Society.

Tax on an average priced home is set to rise by £2,500, the mutual calculated.

Homebuyers currently pay Stamp Duty if their home costs most than £250,000. After 31 March 2025 this will drop to £125,000, taking the tax bill on an average priced home in England from £2,939 to £5,439.

FTB IMPACT

First-time buyers currently pay Stamp Duty if their home costs more than £425,000, which is set to drop to £300,000 in March 2025. The average first-time buyer home in London is £455,923, meaning the Stamp Duty on an average priced first-time buyer home in London will shoot from £1,546 to £7,796.

In last month’s Budget the Stamp Duty surcharge on additional properties was increased from 3% to 5% – meaning anyone buying an average-priced property in England as an additional property had an overnight tax hike of £6,192.

“Anyone looking to buy a home in the next few months needs to know this cliff edge is coming”

OCTOBER DATA

In October homebuyers paid £1.4bn in Stamp Duty, making it a total of £10.2bn so far this year. The OBR forecast shows homebuyers are set to pay 110% more Stamp duty by 2030, with receipts jumping to £18.1bn.

Jonathan Stinton, head of intermediary relationships at Coventry Building Society, said: “Anyone looking to buy a home in the next few months needs to know this cliff edge is coming. Even if someone agrees to buy a property today it might not complete before March 31st – buyers may need to budget for the hike.

“Sellers need to have it in their minds too, because if their buyer hasn’t planned for the increase they could either have to pull out of the sale or attempt to renegotiate the price. It could be really disruptive if people aren’t prepared for it, especially if there are chains involved.

“We’ve known this cliff edge has been coming for a long time, but I think we all secretly hoped some positive Stamp Duty changes would have been introduced in the meantime. The only change has been the second property surcharge going from 3% to 5%, so that’s dominated a lot of the recent Stamp Duty talk, but buyers and sellers need to be really switched on and prepared for what’s coming next April too.”