Residential stamp duty tax take has fallen by 27%, from £11.72bn in 2022-23 to £8.57bn in 2023-24, the latest figures show.
Additionally, the number of residential property transactions fell to 872,000 in 2023-24 from over one million just one year before.
The total tax take from stamp duty land tax (SDLT) including non-residential was down by 24% in the last year from £15.3bn to £11.6bn, a significant £3.7bn drop from the 2022-23 figure.
HMRC puts the drop down to ‘a fall in transaction numbers and policy changes’ with total transactions falling by almost 200,000 (17%) to 977,000 in 2023-24 as residential buyers were hit by hikes in mortgage rates after the fallout from the mini Budget in September 2022.
Andrew Noton, partner at Lubbock Fine, said: “There is a Laffer curve effect at the top end of the market, where the high tax rate is impacting the sales of high-end properties.
“The highest possible rate of SDLT is now 19% which is prohibitive for many buyers.
“The buy-to-let market is also weak due to high interest rates and a general anti private landlord approach by the government causing many to sell up.
“The recent increase in SDLT for purchases of second homes is going to act as a disincentive for landlords to buy or to trade out of one property and into another.”
Non-residential SDLT was also adversely affected, falling by 16% from £3.64bn in 2022-23, to £3bn in 2023-24. Despite the significant drop in tax, total transactions fell by just 3% – 3,000 – over the year to 105,000.
London accounted for the highest number of SDLT receipts, accounting for 39% (£4.5bn) of the total. This was a 19% drop from the previous year, with every region of England and Northern Ireland following this trend.
The sharpest drop was recorded in the east of England, where residential SDLT receipts fell by 33%, while Northern Ireland’s number of receipts fell by 21%.
Out of all the regions in England and Northern Ireland there were just two in the top 10 for residential SDLT receipts, Elmbridge and Buckinghamshire. Westminster in London paid the single most SDLT in the country, at £730m.
Westminster also represented 9% of total non-residential SDLT receipts, accounting for £270m.
Half of receipts also came from property purchases that were for £250,000 or less, although these accounted for just 8% of the total take. Property purchases for £1m-plus equated to just 4% of all transactions while accounting for 52% of the total amount paid in SDLT.
Noton added: “A lot of the reduction in transactions is due to the increased SDLT rates (surcharges for non-residents and second home charges).
“Lower volumes due to lower levels of market activity – due to a disconnect between buyers expectations of value and sellers expectation of value.
“An illiquid property market with high taxes on transactions stops people moving to pursue a better job, many see that as drag on the economy.”
The number of people using first time buyers’ relief has plummeted from around 200,000 buyers for a total of £708m in 2022-23 to 113,100 transactions in 2023-24 worth £540m.
