Analysis of HMRC stats by Coventry Building Society shows stamp duty receipts for August were £910m, taking total receipts for the first eight months of the year to £7.6bn, up from £5.2bn during the same period in 2020.

It comes despite the stamp duty holiday, which meant buyers did not have to pay any tax on the first £500,000 of a property price until the end of June this year.

The final phase of the stamp duty holiday – with the threshold at £250,000 – is due to end on 30 September.

Jonathan Stinton, head of intermediary relationships at Coventry Building Society, said: “Stamp duty has continued to be a very lucrative source of income for the taxman, even with a large proportion of property purchases being exempt from it for over a year. Clearly, there’s still a very healthy market for higher value homes, second homes and rental properties.

“There’s still momentum in the property market with lots of people still looking to buy and the current starting point of £250,000, introduced in July, means people buying an average-priced home will now trigger a tax bill. The size of those bills and the number of people paying them will only increase once the holiday ends in full on 30 September.”

Helen Morrissey, senior pensions and retirement analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “A strong housing market saw stamp duty surge to ever higher levels as buyers tried to get their transactions over the line before the stamp duty holiday relaxed in early July. Whether we will see housing market activity drop in the coming months, only time will tell.”