Residential stamp duty land tax (SDLT) receipts jumped 69% to £10.1bn in England in the last tax year, HMRC data shows.
Home transactions grew 20% year-on-year to 1.2 million in 2021-22 in England – the highest figures since 2007-08.
All regions saw a year-on-year rise in residential stamp duty receipts in 2021-22, HMRC’s data shows, ranging from a 50% rise in London to £3.9bn, to a 117% jump in Northern Ireland to £65m.
A jump in transactions followed stamp duty relief announced in July 2020 in response to the pandemic. From 8 July 2020 to the end of June 2021, homes valued below £500,000 paid no stamp duty, rising from the standard £125,000 exemption. From 1 July 2021 to the end of September 2021, stamp duty was due on homes above £250,000.
Jonathan Stinton, Coventry Building Society head of intermediary relationships, commented: “The numbers confirm what we already knew – the stamp duty holiday injected life into the market at a time of uncertainty. The reduced tax bill enabled people to move more freely, which was especially important during the pandemic when a lot of people were suddenly working from home and reassessing what their house needs to be.”
Last September’s mini-budget saw then chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announcing the permanent abolition of stamp duty for properties up to £250,000, only for his successor Jeremy Hunt to reverse the move in his autumn statement, announcing that stamp duty would revert to the standard £125,000 threshold at the end of March 2025.
Stinton added: “We’re arguably in another period of uncertainty, where an injection to the market would be welcomed by many. The new stamp duty thresholds set in September have eased the tax burden on homebuyers, but there’s room for the government to really get creative in their approach and start introducing incentives for energy-efficient home improvements, or waivers for downsizers, for example.”
