Yorkshire Building Society has published research arguing that stamp duty is deterring millions of people from moving home and weighing on transaction volumes across the UK housing market.
The numbers describe a market that has slowed structurally. Nearly one in three adults — 29 percent — seriously considered moving in the past year, rising to 49 percent among renters hoping to buy a first home. Yet people now move home on average every 21 years, compared with every nine years in the late 1980s. Annual housing transactions have fallen from between 1.5 million and 1.8 million in the early 2000s to between 1 million and 1.2 million today.
Stamp duty is named as a barrier by 23 percent of first-time buyers, 31 percent of second-steppers and 35 percent of downsizers. Half of downsizers said lowering property taxes to make moving more affordable should be a government priority.
The lender attaches an economic figure to each transaction: around £27,000 in gross value added through conveyancing, removals, renovations and furniture, rising to as much as £66,000 once wider chain activity is counted, plus around £14,000 in tax revenue. Housing transactions contributed almost £28 billion to the UK economy in 2025.
On the forward view, Yorkshire Building Society estimates that restoring transaction levels to those of the early 2000s — around 500,000 additional moves a year — could generate a further £66 billion of economic value over five years, with transactions expected to generate £157 billion over the next five years alongside up to £80 billion in tax revenue. The mutual is calling for an industry-wide discussion on replacing stamp duty with what it describes as a fairer and more proportionate property tax. Tom Simpson, its managing director of homes, said that “increasing transactions by just half-a-million a year — which is possible given where we were in the early 2000s — would make a huge difference.”
References
Mortgage Strategy – Stamp duty deterring millions of movers: YBS
