Will the stamp duty increase on 1st April 2025 affect you?

Stamp Duty Land Tax is changing on 1st April 2025.

More buyers will have to pay stamp duty, or pay more stamp duty.

And because stamp duty has to be paid on the completion of your house purchase, you need to have cash in hand to pay for it.

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Check if you would be affected by the stamp duty changes:

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How can I avoid paying more stamp duty?

The only ways to avoid paying the increased stamp duty are by completing your house purchase before 1st April of 2025, or by buying a cheaper house that you’d pay less or no stamp duty on.

If you want to complete before 1st April:

• 💬 Tell everyone that you need to complete before 1st April. That includes telling the estate agent, your conveyancing solicitor, and asking them to pass that deadline on to the seller and their solicitor.
• 🏃‍♀️ Make sure you are being proactive in asking for weekly updates from your solicitor & the estate agent throughout your buying process, so that your purchase will keep progressing.
• 🤔 Consider making trade-offs to prioritise the speed of the transaction. Getting a survey & getting your conveyancing solicitor to set off “searches” straight after you’ve had your offer accepted could speed up your purchase. Buying home buyer’s insurance beforehand could cover their non-refundable cost in some scenarios, but not all.

Make sure you don’t rush into buying a house that might have big problems just to avoid the stamp duty increases. Fixing structural problems in a house will cost a lot more than the stamp duty increases. If you’re not sure about a house, it’s better to accept that you’ll be paying more stamp duty than risk your life’s savings on a property that might not be OK.

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What if I don’t complete before 1st April 2025?

If you’re not sure you’ll be able to complete before 1st April and don’t think you’ll have the cash to pay the extra stamp duty on the house you want, there’s a few things you can do:

• 💰 Use some of your deposit to pay the extra stamp duty. This means you’d need to apply for a bigger mortgage with a lower deposit - which your mortgage lender might not allow you to do. You’d need to do this before you exchange.
• 📉 Negotiate down the house price. The seller might not agree, but if it’s a choice between that or you not having the money to complete the sale, it’s worth a go. You’d need to do this before you exchange.
• 🔎 Start searching for a cheaper property, so that you’d pay less stamp duty. This is your only remaining option if the previous 2 options don’t work.

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What are the stamp duty threshold changes?

The key changes in stamp duty on 1st April 2025 are:

• First Time Buyers will start paying stamp duty on properties priced above £300k, down from £425k
• First Time Buyer stamp duty relief will stop at £500k, down from £625k. Any FTBs buying a property priced over this will have to pay stamp duty like they aren’t a FTB (ie, they’ll pay a lot more stamp duty).
• Non-FTBs will start paying stamp duty on properties priced at £125k, down from £250k.

This chart shows the impact on FTBs for different house prices:

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Why is stamp duty changing?

Liz Truss temporarily changed the stamp duty thresholds back in 2022. They were due to return to their previous levels on 1st April 2025. The labour government has decided not to change this - so stamp duty is returning to its previous levels.