STAMP DUTY LAND TAX receipts increased by 20% from £11,615 million to £13,885 million between the financial year 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025, HMRC announced today.
One portfolio landlord said the “bonanza masks a deeper truth about Britain’s property market”, while a broker said the Government treats the property market like a “cash cow”.
HMRC revealed that residential SDLT receipts rose by 21% between financial year 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025, from £8,570 million to £10,380 million.
The Revenue says the increase is partly explained by the uplift to the HRAD (Higher Rates on Additional Dwellings) surcharge rate from 3% to 5%, which came into effect from 31 October 2024 — and partly by buyers rushing to purchase properties before the changes to SDLT thresholds became effective from 1 April 2025.
It added that 211,700 transactions were subject to the HRAD surcharge in the financial year 2024 to 2025, which gave rise to £2,790 million in tax raised.
Meanwhile, HMRC said total stamp tax receipts between the financial year 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 rose by 23%, from £14,815 million to £18,205 million.
It said Stamp taxes on shares and other liable securities (SDRT and SD) receipts rose by 35% from £3,200 million to £4,320 million between 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025.
Deeper truth of Stamp Duty
Kundan Bhaduri, Portfolio Landlord at London-based The Kushman Group, said that while the Government will be celebrating the tax take, the property market more widely is being “strangled”.
He said: “The Treasury collected 23% more in Stamp Duty this year, driven largely by panicked buyers rushing to complete before April’s threshold cuts took effect.
“The Stamp Duty bonanza masks a deeper truth about Britain’s property market. It is being systematically strangled by a government that mistakes short-term revenue grabs for sustainable economic policy.”
Aaron Strutt, Product and Communications Director at London-based Trinity Financial, described the numbers as “sad”.
He said: “We are in a pretty sad situation where so many people either won’t move or cannot move because of the huge Stamp Duty bill they would need to pay.
“The government’s tax take is so massive that it is unwilling to introduce changes to make it less expensive for people to move or even buy another property. This despite ongoing calls to reduce or even abolish Stamp Duty to help free up the property market.
“The government does not seem like it is going to back down on Stamp Duty changes simply because the property market is such a big cash cow.”
Broken market
Rohit Parmar-Mistry, Founder at Burton-on-Trent-based Pattrn Data, said that while there was a panic to beat the April deadline, the real story is the ‘stealth tax’ of rising prices.
He said: “As property values creep up, ordinary family homes are being dragged into Stamp Duty brackets that were originally meant for the wealthy. It’s a classic case of the system failing to adapt to reality.
“We have buyers stretching themselves thin to pay inflated prices, only to find they’ve sleepwalked into a higher tax band because the thresholds haven’t kept up with the market. The government hasn’t just benefited from the April push, they’ve cashed in on the fact that ‘affordable’ housing essentially no longer exists in many parts of the UK.
“This £18bn receipt isn’t a sign of a booming economy, it’s a receipt for a broken market where buyers are paying more for less and the taxman is taking a bigger cut of the struggle.”
Photo by Andy Hermawan on Unsplash
