With first-time buyers accounting for 19.1% of the overall housing market on an annual basis, the end of the Stamp Duty relief extension next April will impact a large portion of the market, research from eXp UK has revealed.
The platform for personal estate agents analysed the latest data on Stamp Duty receipts for residential property transactions across England, looking at which areas were home to the highest percentage of receipts attributed to first-time buyers.
First-time buyers currently pay no Stamp Duty on homes priced up to £425,000 and while Labour has committed to keeping this rate of Stamp Duty relief fixed for the time being, the party has made no commitment to extending it beyond the deadline that falls at the end of March 2025.
The previous threshold for first-time buyer Stamp Duty relief was £300,000, meaning that the areas of the market most reliant on first-time buyer activity could be hit hardest should no extension be made, as first-time buyers struggle to find a Stamp Duty free purchase, resulting in a reduction in demand and potentially property values.
The analysis from eXp UK shows that on an annual basis, first-time buyers accounted for 19.1% of all homes sold across England.
This climbed to as high as 38.5% across both Stevenage and Barking and Dagenham.
Harlow and Newham also ranked high, with 37.5% of all transactions coming via first-time buyers, with Watford also making the top five where 36.8% of all sales were to first-time buyers.
Other areas to feature in the top 10 included Bexley (36.6%), Dartford (36%), Thurrock (35.7%), Crawley, Slough and Bristol (35.3%).
However, there were a further seven local authorities where first-time buyers accounted for a third or more of all transactions, with 38 seeing them account for a quarter of more of all market activity.
Adam Day, head of eXp UK, said: “Whilst it’s great news that Labour will keep the current threshold in place with respect to first-time buyer Stamp Duty relief, it’s fair to say that this segment of the market was hoping for a great deal more from the new Government.
“They remain the hardest pressed when it comes to climbing the property ladder and it certainly looks as though come next April, things will get that little bit harder when the Stamp Duty free threshold returns to £300,000.
“For the areas of the market most reliant on first-time buyer activity, this could prove particularly problematic, as the likelihood is that buyer demand levels will fall and this could inevitably cause house prices to do the same.
“Fingers crossed that our new Government realises the importance of helping first-time buyers before the current deadline expires and introduces either an extension, or additional initiatives to help curb the current high cost of buying a first home.”
