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First-time Buyer

Homebuyers shell out more than £12k in stamp duty over lifetime

Paloma Kubiak
Written By:
Paloma Kubiak
Posted:
Updated:
31/07/2017

Homebuyers pay an average of £12,700 in stamp duty over their lifetime as they move up the housing ladder.

A typical first-time buyer would have paid £758 in stamp duty in 2001, £1,989 for their second home in 2009 and £9,946 on their final step of the ladder in 2017.

According to the Lloyds Bank research, the highest overall stamp duty bills are faced by buyers in London and the South East.

In London, homebuyers pay a total of £40,576, which is 320% more than the average for England and Wales. In the South East, the overall bill is £20,133. The lowest bills are in the North (£4,212) and Wales (£4,489).

lifetimestampduty

Lloyds also found that more than three quarters (78%) of first-time buyers pay stamp duty – up from 47% in 2001.

In Greater London, 100% of first-time buyers face paying stamp duty with 98% of first-time buyers paying the tax in the South East. The only region where fewer than half of first-time buyers pay stamp duty is the North (41%).

Homebuyers in England and Wales paid £8.3bn in stamp duty in 2016 – £1.2bn more than in 2015. This rise reversed the £571m decline between 2014 and 2015 (a result of stamp duty reforms that came into place in December 2014).

Andrew Mason, Lloyds Bank mortgage products director, said: “Rising house prices have caused stamp duty payments to continue to increase despite the reforms that came into effect from December 2014.

“As a result, the £8.3bn raised in stamp duty in 2016 was more than £2bn higher than at the peak of the last housing boom in 2007.

“The average home buyer pays £12,693 in stamp duty in total as they move up the housing ladder. This average, however, disguises substantial regional differences with those in Greater London paying over £40,000. Escalating stamp duty payments have contributed to significant increases in moving costs in recent years.”