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Stamp Duty struggle for families in the South

Christina Hoghton
Written By:
Christina Hoghton
Posted:
Updated:
27/02/2024

Higher house prices means more Stamp Duty, but average buyers in 14 UK towns and cities don’t incur the tax

Families in the South fork out £4,307 more on average in Stamp Duty than those in the North, according to new research by HouseSimple.com.

The online estate agent looked at the average price of a basic terraced or semi-detached house in 80 major towns and cities throughout the UK, and worked out how much Stamp Duty would be due.

And they found a huge North-South disparity.

It’s cheap up North

To buy a basic family home in the South, the average Stamp Duty tax is £5,297. That’s more than a fifth (21.7%) of the average annual salary across the region. This compares with an average Stamp Duty cost of just £990 on a house in the North, which is only 4.5% of the average annual salary across these Northern towns.

In London, the Stamp Duty bill on a basic family home purchase is £26,404, almost 90% of the average annual salary in the Capital.

No Stamp Duty to pay

There are 14 UK towns and cities where families won’t pay any Stamp Duty at all on an average-priced family house (terraced or semi-detached). Not surprisingly they are all in the North of England and average house prices in these areas range from £100,094 to £124,653.

They are Barnsley, Blackpool, Bradford, Chesterfield, Doncaster, Grimsby, Hartlepool, Hull, Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Rochdale, Stockton-On-Tees, Stoke-on-Trent and Wigan.

At the other end of the scale, Stamp Duty exceeds £10,000 on the average home in London, Oxford, Brighton, Guildford and Watford.

Alex Gosling, CEO of HouseSimple.com, said: “Next week, UK Chancellor Philip Hammond is set to help first-time buyers by announcing a Stamp Duty freeze in his Autumn Budget.

“But while that might benefit families looking to buy their first property, it won’t help the hundreds of thousands of families who are trapped in cramped properties that are not fit-for-purpose, because they can’t afford to upsize and face the prospect of losing thousands of pounds in vital funds to pay another unnecessary tax.

“The Stamp Duty trap is particularly severe in the south of the UK where property prices have raced away from average local salaries. Families are already having to dip into savings to meet rising living costs, the last thing they need right now is to decimate their savings, which have already been taxed, to pay Stamp Duty.”