Average Stamp Duty bills for residential property purchases hit £15,000 (£15,071) in the first quarter of the year, according to analysis of HMRC data by Coventry Building Society.
The latest official statistics also show £9.9bn of all Stamp Duty receipts in the 2021/22 tax year came from residential properties – the highest amount on record.
Of the 244,200 residential homes bought between January and March this year, just 71,000 either received First Time Buyer Relief (43,700) or were below the tax threshold altogether (27,300).
Last week’s tax receipts data from HMRC showed the Treasury raked in more than £14bn* in Stamp Duty, including for non-residential property, in the last financial year – despite a Stamp Duty Holiday being in place for homebuyers until the end of September.
Jonathan Stinton, head of intermediary relationships at Coventry Building Society, said: “Stamp Duty is a huge burden on homebuyers and it clearly needs to be properly reviewed – or at least updated to keep pace with house price inflation.
“This tax on moving home hasn’t been changed since December 2014, when an average price property in England was £203,000 and the Stamp Duty bill for someone already on the property ladder was £1,566.
“The average price of a home in England is now £296,000 and rising. And as house prices have rocketed the thresholds and rates for Stamp Duty have stood still, meaning ever higher tax bills for home movers.
“Even with the Stamp Duty relief in place for first-time buyers, as many as one in four are now paying hefty bills: of the 43,700 receiving First Time Buyers Relief in the first quarter of 2022, 11,300 (26%) were hit with tax bills of up to £10,000 because the value of their first home was more than £300,000.”
