Landlords ‘shrug off’ Stamp Duty rise but move north
Since the Autumn Budget landlord purchases have been above their average level for this year, says Hamptons.
The Chancellor’s recent decision to raise the Stamp Duty on Buy-to-Let (BTL) and second home purchases by 2% has had a limited impact on the behaviour of landlords, a leading estate agency has claimed.
Hamptons‘ research chief Aneisha Beveridge (pictured) says the data reveals that 10.7% of sales agreed across Great Britain in November went to a landlord, which is above the 2024 average of 10.2%
While landlord purchases remain below the 2015 peak of 15.7% (when BTL investors were first charged stamp duty), the figure remains in line with more recent years.
Above average
Hamptons’ analysis also shows that most investors who agreed deals in advance of the higher stamp duty rate announced in the budget stuck to their plans.
But 28% of sales agreed by investors during the three months running up to the stamp duty increase were either renegotiated or remarketed, but that is half the level recorded during the aftermath of Liz Truss’ disastrous Mini-Budget.
Going north
Also, the higher Stamp Duty rate has pushed investors towards the North of England where lower house prices mean lower stamp duty bills.
The largest post-budget falls have been in the South of England and particularly outside London where high stamp duty bills can make buy-to-let unviable.
Early signs suggest that new landlords have shown relative resilience to yet another cost increase.”
Landlord buying has proved the most robust in the NE of England, with investors there buying a larger proportion of homes than before 2015. Last month, 18.4% of homes sold in the NE were bought by a landlord and they paid on average £115,000 so their stamp duty bill has risen from £3,450 to £5,750.
Beveridge says: “Early signs suggest that new landlords have shown relative resilience to yet another cost increase. While the number of buy-to-let purchases by landlords remains muted by historic levels, their numbers have not collapsed.
“However, purchases are confined to the Midlands and Northern England which are becoming buy-to-let heartlands where the surcharge bites slightly less hard.”
