New analysis of home buyer enquiries across England in the first half of 2026 from Zoopla reveals a stark North-South divide in stamp duty costs.
The analysis shows fewer than one in ten first-time buyers paid the tax across Northern England compared with 51% in the South East and almost eight in ten in London.
While first-time buyers get relief from Stamp Duty and pay nothing up to £300,000, three in eight first-time buyers (38%) paid Stamp Duty nationally – but six in ten pay nothing at all.
Where you buy determines the extra cost of buying your first home.
REGIONAL STAMP DUTY SPLIT
In the North East, just 2.1% of first-time buyers face a stamp duty bill. In Yorkshire and the Humber the figure is 3.8%, and in the North West and West Midlands, 6.2% and 9.3% respectively. In each case, the majority of first time buyers are buying at prices that sit comfortably below the £300,000 threshold where relief ends.
The South East and East of England sit at the tipping point with 51% and 52% of first-time buyers in those regions paying Stamp Duty that adds to the cost of buying.
In these areas the average price of a home where stamp duty is paid is £395,000 and £390,000 respectively, well above the national average. In London, nearly eight in ten (79.7%) pay Stamp Duty where the average first-time buyer price is £475,000. The average Stamp Duty bill is £8,750.
HIT ON HOME MOVERS
There is also a regional divide when it comes to home movers.
More than four in five homeowners pay Stamp Duty in every English region bar the North East, where nearly two thirds (63.5%) face a bill, the research suggests.
In the North, bills are modest – averaging £2,200 in both Yorkshire and the North West, where home movers pay less than one penny in every pound of their purchase price as Stamp Duty.
Across Southern England the burden rises sharply and can have a big impact on the cost of moving home and whether people can afford to move at all.
Zoopla found that 95% of South East home movers pay Stamp Duty at an average cost of £11,250 – 2.7 pence in every pound. In London, where the median home mover asking price is £600,000, the bill reaches £20,000: more than three pence in every pound.
Richard Donnell, executive director at Zoopla, says: “Where you’re buying determines what you pay in Stamp Duty if you’re a first-time buyer. In the North and Midlands, the £300,000 takes nine in ten first-time buyers out of paying anything extra to buy their home. In London and the South East, the cost of buying an average first time buyer homes is above £300,000 for many buyers which means the majority of first-time buyers face a stamp duty bill on top of an often sizeable deposit.
“For home movers, Stamp Duty is a near-certain cost wherever you live – and in Southern England it runs to five figures. Six in ten property purchases are made by existing homeowners. When the cost of moving becomes a meaningful friction, some of those moves don’t happen, especially with lower levels of house price inflation in recent years across southern England.”
