Existing home sales fall 18.4% after stamp duty thresholds drop

Sales of existing homes in England and Wales fell 18.4% in the year to March 2026, the first full year after stamp duty thresholds dropped back (ONS, 17 September 2026). The count fell from 779,222 to 635,570 sales. Stamp duty relief ended on 31 March 2025, and sales fell in every region of England.

What happened to stamp duty in April 2025?

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT, the tax you pay when you buy property in England and Northern Ireland) went back to its pre-September 2022 bands on 1 April 2025 (GOV.UK). The nil-rate band, the slice of the price taxed at zero, fell from £250,000 to £125,000. First-time buyers were hit twice. Their nil-rate threshold fell from £425,000 to £300,000, and the price cap for the relief fell from £625,000 to £500,000.

For example, on a property worth £295,000, the rate is 0% on the first £125,000, 2% on the next £125,000 and 5% on the last £45,000. That is £4,750 today (GOV.UK). Under the temporary bands you paid 5% only on the £45,000 above £250,000, which is £2,250. Your liability is £2,500 higher on the same house. You can test your own figures in our free stamp duty calculator.

A first-time buyer paying £400,000 paid nothing before April 2025. Today the bill is 5% on the £100,000 above £300,000, which is £5,000 (GOV.UK). If you buy as an investor, the 5% surcharge on additional homes sits on top of these same bands (GOV.UK). So the lower threshold adds the same £2,500 to a £295,000 buy-to-let (a property bought to rent out).

Is stamp duty really behind the fall?

The comparison year was unusual. In the year to March 2025, existing home sales hit 779,222, up 26.4% on the 616,661 of the year before (ONS). The government predicted this in its November 2022 tax information and impact note. It said a temporary cut would pull purchases forward, with "a commensurate reduction in transactions once the measure expires" (GOV.UK, 28 November 2022). Measured against the year to March 2024, sales in the latest year are actually 3.1% higher (ONS).

Wales is a useful comparison. SDLT does not apply there, because Wales charges its own Land Transaction Tax, and the April 2025 change never touched it (GOV.UK). Welsh existing home sales fell just 5.7%, against 19.1% in England (ONS). London fell hardest, down 29.9%, while the North East, North West and East Midlands each fell about 15%. Those splits suggest a tax effect, but a correlation is not proof, and you may wish to weigh local demand in your property investment strategy.

Jonathan Stinton, head of intermediary relationships at Coventry for Intermediaries, read it more directly. "A near 20% drop in house sales shows just how significant stamp duty has become in people's decisions about moving home," he told Mortgage Solutions (18 September 2026). Mortgage Solutions points to the last relief as the mirror image. Existing home sales rose 4.7%, from 726,832 in the year to March 2020 to 761,154 a year later (ONS).

What does this mean for your next purchase?

First, the 18.4% covers existing homes only (ONS). Include new builds and the ONS count fell 22.7%, from 853,195 to 659,366. Either way, fewer sales means fewer comparable sales to value against, so it may be worth checking how recent the evidence behind any asking price is.

Second, the tax is a fixed cost you cannot negotiate away. What you can negotiate is the price. A seller who has watched buyers walk away may accept an offer that reflects the higher SDLT bill, and our guide to negotiation and finance covers how to frame that.

Key takeaways

• Existing home sales in England and Wales fell 18.4% in the year to March 2026, from 779,222 to 635,570 (ONS).

• The SDLT nil-rate band fell from £250,000 to £125,000 on 1 April 2025, adding £2,500 to a £295,000 purchase in England (GOV.UK).

• First-time buyers now pay nothing only up to £300,000, so a £400,000 first home costs £5,000 in SDLT (GOV.UK).

• Wales, where SDLT does not apply, saw existing home sales fall just 5.7%, against 19.1% in England (ONS).

• The comparison year was unusually strong, up 26.4% on the year before, and sales in the latest year are still 3.1% above the year to March 2024 (ONS).