97% of London homeowners to pay stamp duty from April
That's a rise from the current 89% of those in the Capital
Last updated 19th Feb 2025
First-time buyers in London are likely to be heavily impacted by upcoming changes to stamp duty.
From April, those buying a home in England and Northern Ireland will be facing tighter limits for homes not applicable to stamp duty.
The "nil rate" band for first-time buyers will reduce from £425,000 to £300,000 and other home buyers seeing a reduction from £250,000 to £125,000.
Zoopla estimates the share of first-time buyers paying the tax will jump from 21% to 42%, with homeowners in London who will be paying the stamp duty rising to 97% from April, compared to 89% currently.
Simon Gerrard, chairman of Martyn Gerrard estate agents, said: "These upcoming stamp duty changes will disproportionately affect first-time buyers in London, where housing is much more expensive, with 97% of sales set to pay stamp duty from April.
"In other areas, the impacts will be less pronounced. On the ground, we saw a big uptick in interest from first-time buyers in the last few months as they sought to get ahead of the changes, which will add thousands to the cost of buying a home.
"Some of the negative impacts may be offset by the Bank of England lowering interest rates, which will make mortgages more affordable, but it could also see house prices increase even further.
"The route onto the property ladder still contains so many barriers and the upcoming stamp duty threshold reductions will only aggravate an already dire situation."
He suggested that existing stamp duty relief should be kept in place for first-time buyers, "or better still abolish it for first-time buyers".
Rightmove said there are 28% more first-time buyers in London currently going through the sales completion process than at this time last year.