Thu, 09 Oct 2025

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 Five ways abolishing stamp duty could change the housing market

Kemi Badenoch says a future Conservative government would scrap stamp duty, but what might the impact be?

* Scrapping stamp duty on main homes would be popular among first-time buyers, the housing sector, and some independent economists.
* Analysts predict significant consequences for buyers, sellers, and the wider UK economy.
* Abolishing stamp duty could lead to increased house prices as demand feeds through to asking prices.
* First-time buyers might pay less in stamp duty but would need a bigger deposit instead.
* The policy's impact would be unevenly distributed across the country, with regions like the North East benefiting more than London.
* Scrapping stamp duty would leave a £10.5bn-£11bn gap in public finances by 2029-30, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
* Replacing the lost revenue could involve raising other taxes or making savings elsewhere.
* The IFS suggests that scrapping stamp duty could discourage landlords from buying rental properties and increase the favourable tax treatment of owner-occupation relative to renting.
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