STOCKPORT, UK. June 5th, 2026 – Analysis by free financial tools site Accepted.co.uk has revealed the stark regional divide created by April 2025’s stamp duty threshold cuts, with first-time buyers in London and the South East facing thousands of pounds in new costs while buyers across the Midlands and North pay nothing extra.
London first-time buyers now face a stamp duty bill of £15,576, up from £4,326 before April 2025, an increase of £11,250. South East buyers pay £3,399 more and East of England buyers pay £2,326 more.
Meanwhile, six regions including the North East, North West, Midlands, and South West see zero increase because average prices remain below the new £300,000 nil-rate threshold. The threshold for first-time buyer relief was cut from £425,000 to £300,000 on 1 April 2025
Analysis by free personal finance website Accepted.co.uk, using Halifax’s authoritative first-time buyer price data for 2024, has calculated the exact stamp duty impact of the April 2025 threshold cuts on first-time buyers in every English region.
The results expose a dramatic postcode lottery. Buyers in London, where the average first-time buyer price now stands at £511,514, have seen their stamp duty bill jump from £4,326 to £15,576, an increase of £11,250. South East buyers, facing an average price of £367,974, now owe £3,399 in stamp duty where they previously paid nothing. East of England buyers pay an additional £2,326.
However, buyers in six English regions, the North East, Yorkshire and The Humber, North West, East Midlands, West Midlands, and South West continue to pay no stamp duty as average first-time buyer prices remain below the new £300,000 nil-rate threshold.
STAMP DUTY BY REGION: BEFORE AND AFTER APRIL 2025
(Source: Halifax First-Time Buyer Review 2025 / Accepted.co.uk analysis. Based on 2024 average first-time buyer prices. England only.)
David Morris, Personal Finance Editor at Accepted.co.uk, commented: “The stamp duty changes in April 2025 have created one of the starkest regional divides in British housing policy in years.
“In London, the typical first-time buyer now faces a stamp duty bill of over £15,000, on top of a deposit averaging £124,688. That’s nearly £140,000 needed before they even get the keys. Meanwhile, buyers in the North East, who arguably need the most help to build wealth through home ownership, see no change at all because their prices sit comfortably below the new threshold.
“The relief was supposed to help first-time buyers. Instead, it now helps those who need it least and penalises those who face the highest costs.”
In London, the average first-time buyer price of £511,514 now exceeds the £500,000 upper limit for first-time buyer relief entirely. This means London buyers receive no first-time buyer discount at all. They pay the standard residential rates that apply to all buyers, including experienced home movers.
Before April 2025, a first-time buyer purchasing at the London average of £511,514 would have paid stamp duty only on the portion above £425,000, a bill of £4,326. From April 2025, they pay stamp duty under the full standard rate structure, producing a bill of £15,576, an increase of £11,250 from a single policy change.
This comes as the average London first-time buyer deposit already stands at £124,688, according to Halifax data. A buyer in the capital must now budget for total upfront costs, deposit plus stamp duty, of over £140,000 before their mortgage even begins.
The stamp duty threshold increases introduced by the Conservative government in September 2022 were always temporary. From 1 April 2025, thresholds reverted to their pre-2022 levels. For first-time buyers, the nil-rate threshold, the point below which no stamp duty is paid, dropped from £425,000 to £300,000. The maximum property value at which first-time buyer relief applies also fell from £625,000 to £500,000.
There have been no further stamp duty changes announced for 2026. The April 2025 rates remain in force.
