Prime London Stamp Duty Bills Enough to Buy a House in 167 areas of the UK

September 26, 2019

It’s cheaper to buy a detached house in much of the UK than pay stamp duty land tax in prime central London demonstrating the vast difference between different segments of the market.

Since changes to stamp duty tax from the traditional slab scale method, the Government has looked to make the cost more favourable for homebuyers, although those at the top end of the market have been left considerably worse off.

Analysis from the national fast sale agent, Springbok Properties, shows that if you bought a detached house in Kensington and Chelsea, you would be facing a stamp duty bill of £318,800 on the typical house price of £3.38m.

Using data from the Land Registry, Springbok then looked at where across the UK this additional eye-water bill could secure you a whole detached home and as you can imagine, there are quite a few locations.

Three homes for the price of stamp duty

For the same amount as that stamp duty bill, you could almost buy three detached homes in Northern Ireland, where they typically cost £108,400 each.

Properties are also far cheaper in Scotland (£266,300) and Wales (£248,300), although on a national level they are higher in England (£375,600).

However, looking at the UK house price rankings, there are some 167 areas where prime central London stamp duty sums exceed the average house price, with the cost sitting between the Isle of Wight (£319,510) and Hambleton (£316,909).

While this sum is enough to get on the ladder in the likes of Hambleton, Newport, Kettering, Forest of Dean, Manchester, Plymouth and more, at the other end of the table you could even double up on your bricks and mortar.

In the Scottish Western Isles, Burnley and Blaenau Gwent in Wales, you could afford two homes at the average house price, with the likes of County Durham, East Ayrshire, Hyndburn, Blackpool and Stoke not far behind that.

Founder and CEO of Springbok Properties, Shepherd Ncube, commented:

“Stamp duty continues to be an additional financial burden that many fail to properly account for when buying a house and it can catch many potential buyers out as a result.

The one silver lining for the average UK homebuyer is that they aren’t paying the astronomical sums required to purchase at the very top end of London’s property ladder.

It’s quite astonishing that such sums are paid to cover stamp duty when many struggle to get on the ladder at all and this is just for a typical property sale, not a second home which would incur an additional three percent charge.

The Government has certainly achieved in its objective to dampen the appetite of foreign buyers in London’s prime market by adjusting the stamp duty thresholds, but this seems to have had an impact across the board and you can see why.”

Stamp Duty House Prices
Location
Stamp duty (SDLT)
Kensington & Chelsea
£318,775
Average detached comparrative house price
Location
AverageDetached Price (latest July 2019)
United Kingdom
£351,678
England
£375,593
Wales
£248,324
Scotland
£266,304
Northern Ireland
£108,398
By Area
Isle of Wight
£319,510
Kensington & Chelsea Stamp Duty
£318,775
Hambleton
£316,909
Newport
£316,579
Kettering
£315,301
Forest of Dean
£314,259
Manchester
£314,114
City of Plymouth
£313,640
Ryedale
£313,211
Shropshire
£312,912
South Staffordshire
£312,689
Leicester
£309,777
City of Peterborough
£308,416
Salford
£307,138
South Kesteven
£306,019
Hinckley and Bosworth
£305,511
North Warwickshire
£305,462
Wyre Forest
£302,274
Bury
£301,612
Newcastle upon Tyne
£299,911
Eden
£299,215
Tendring
£297,360
Breckland
£296,881
North Tyneside
£296,321
Richmondshire
£295,436
Corby
£293,874
Stafford
£293,368
King’s Lynn and West Norfolk
£293,298
Tamworth
£291,410
Sefton
£291,129
Sheffield
£290,278
Waveney
£289,786
Fylde
£285,425
West Lancashire
£284,692
West Lothian
£282,401
Staffordshire
£282,210
Nuneaton and Bedworth
£281,728
Perth and Kinross
£280,785
Selby
£280,740
North West Leicestershire
£278,991
Calderdale
£278,871
Newark and Sherwood
£277,090
East Staffordshire
£274,794
Dudley
£274,442
West Yorkshire
£271,972
Walsall
£270,055
Gedling
£269,183
Wirral
£269,028
Chorley
£266,253
Lancaster
£265,485
Broxtowe
£264,632
Aberdeenshire
£264,446
East Riding of Yorkshire
£263,499
Nottinghamshire
£261,966
Derbyshire
£261,715
City of Dundee
£261,699
Tameside
£261,180
South Derbyshire
£261,045
Tyne and Wear
£259,980
North East Derbyshire
£259,021
Cumbria
£257,715
Great Yarmouth
£256,240
Torfaen
£254,569
Liverpool
£254,459
Scarborough
£254,377
Merseyside
£254,168
Fenland
£254,150
North Kesteven
£252,693
Sandwell
£252,124
Telford and Wrekin
£251,565
Cannock Chase
£250,998
Bradford
£250,692
Chesterfield
£250,388
Northumberland
£250,272
Amber Valley
£250,160
City of Derby
£250,036
South Ribble
£248,986
Highland
£248,671
Wales
£248,324
Lancashire
£248,094
Wolverhampton
£246,973
Powys
£246,747
Kirklees
£246,689
Erewash
£246,680
Lincoln
£246,466
Halton
£246,236
Staffordshire Moorlands
£245,982
Angus
£244,987
Lincolnshire
£244,918
Scottish Borders
£244,912
South Tyneside
£243,783
Rochdale
£243,111
Inverclyde
£242,052
Bolton
£241,862
Renfrewshire
£241,685
Pembrokeshire
£241,659
Gateshead
£241,180
South Lanarkshire
£239,946
City of Nottingham
£239,663
Isle of Anglesey
£239,264
Ceredigion
£238,879
Fife
£238,202
Flintshire
£238,168
Swansea
£237,979
Oldham
£237,483
South Holland
£237,473
Bridgend
£237,033
Newcastle-under-Lyme
£237,029
Wakefield
£235,677
Wrexham
£233,880
Conwy
£233,113
Rossendale
£231,004
Caerphilly
£230,582
Falkirk
£229,547
Clackmannanshire
£228,661
Bassetlaw
£228,171
Preston
£226,764
Allerdale
£226,751
Wigan
£226,679
Gwynedd
£225,519
Moray
£225,496
Shetland Islands
£225,377
South Ayrshire
£224,722
South Yorkshire
£222,465
Boston
£222,089
Darlington
£221,693
East Lindsey
£221,249
Stockton-on-Tees
£219,390
West Dunbartonshire
£218,579
West Lindsey
£218,002
Argyll and Bute
£217,732
Wyre
£216,720
Carlisle
£216,194
Sunderland
£216,002
Barrow-in-Furness
£214,253
Rotherham
£212,808
City of Kingston upon Hull
£212,560
Knowsley
£211,770
North Lanarkshire
£210,894
St Helens
£209,958
Blackburn with Darwen
£208,380
Ashfield
£204,387
North East Lincolnshire
£201,665
North Lincolnshire
£200,036
Orkney Islands
£199,002
Mansfield
£198,503
Doncaster
£195,967
Barnsley
£195,961
Denbighshire
£195,849
Carmarthenshire
£194,775
Copeland
£194,678
Rhondda Cynon Taf
£193,427
Merthyr Tydfil
£193,420
Redcar and Cleveland
£191,490
Dumfries and Galloway
£190,541
North Ayrshire
£190,116
Pendle
£187,773
Middlesbrough
£187,691
Hartlepool
£187,038
Neath Port Talbot
£180,784
Bolsover
£180,035
Stoke-on-Trent
£179,123
Blackpool
£174,923
Hyndburn
£169,971
East Ayrshire
£168,926
County Durham
£165,916
Blaenau Gwent
£159,245
Burnley
£157,260
The Western Isles
£145,081

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