Stamp Duty is stopping some people from moving home, according to Zoopla.

Richard Donnell, Executive Director at Zoopla, (main picture) warns that where Stamp Duty is so high that it becomes a “meaningful friction”, some of those moves end up grinding to a halt.

He says: “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.”

When the cost of moving becomes a meaningful friction, some of those moves don’t happen.”

He is calling on the Government to adjust the current £250,000 threshold where home movers begin to pay the tax.

The current £250,000 threshold where the 5% Stamp Duty rate starts for home movers was introduced more than 11 years ago in 2014.

If this was adjusted in line with house prices it would be around £380,000 today, saving the average home buyer up to £6,500 in Stamp Duty for purchases between £250,000 and £380,000.

North-South divide

His comments come as the property portal releases figures showing that more than four out of five homeowners pay Stamp Duty in every English region except in the North East, where 63.5% face a bill.

However, there is a clear North-South divide in terms of how much of the tax that home movers pay.

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 the South of 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.

Ninety-five per cent of South East home movers pay Stamp Duty at an eye-watering average cost of £11,250. It is 2.7 pence in every pound.

Meanwhile, in London, where the median home mover asking price is £600,000, the bill reaches £20,000, which is more than three pence in every pound.