For the first time, at £257,120, the average price of a residential property in London is now above the £250,000 threshold at which stamp duty is paid at 3%, according to the Halifax.  This means the average homebuyer in London would pay stamp duty of £7,714, compared with £1,535 five years ago.

More and more properties are falling into the higher thresholds (£250,000 and £500,000) which have not been updated for more than eight years. There are now six regions across the UK – the North West, West Midlands, East of England, South East, South West and London – where the average price of a detached house is above the 3% stamp duty threshold.

Five years ago, only London had an average detached house price above this threshold. In 2005, the average detached house price in London was also above the 4% stamp duty threshold.