The April 1st Stamp Duty Increase – and what it means for Property Sales in Wiltshire

Or that was the Headline, at least – and that is what most Estate Agents and commentators have been saying, isn’t it...?

Yes. But actually, the truth of it is not quite so straight forward…

In this week’s blog, we break down the news of the Stamp Duty increase, discuss whether it is truly the ‘increase’ that headlines would have us accept it is and, most importantly of all, we explore what it all really means for property buyers in Wiltshire.

A Busy First Quarter for Property Sales in Wiltshire

Like many Estate Agents, our House Group Members have been incredibly busy of late – in our case, busy selling properties in Swindon and across Wiltshire. We have pushed with everything we had to get as many sales as we could over the line in time for ‘the change’ – and we had double figures’ worth of sales going right to the wire, with six going through last week, and seven going on March 31st, right at the very death!

And of course, that saved those buyers thousands of pounds in Stamp Duty.

But it wasn’t all about March 31^st, or the last week, or even the last month. It has been a busy Quarter all round – and not just for The House Group, nor just for the Wiltshire property market, but in fact on a national level.

Since the Autumn Budget, there has been a groundswell of activity setting the market up for a busy first quarter, and the Wiltshire property market has certainly been no exception.

Property ‘sold’ prices, a typical weather gauge for the health of the property market – although I would argue, not the most reliable of measures – are up in Wiltshire by around 4.2% year on year, according to The Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This is not far off the national picture which has seen prices increase by around 5% overall (gov.uk).

This puts the average house price in Wiltshire at just under £330,000, although that single figure can be somewhat misleading, as it really depends on the type of property we are talking about.

Here is how local Wiltshire property prices break down by property type:

• Flats - £164,000
• Terraced Homes - £263,000
• Semi-Detached Homes - £327,000
• Detached Homes - £516,000

If you own a property in Wiltshire, it might also be useful to know that data site Housemetric records the median average value to be £3,550 per square metre (and of course, if you would like to know a more accurate assessment of your home’s value, please click here).

Nevertheless, I mentioned earlier that property prices in themselves are not necessarily the best weather gauge; what better demonstrates the health of a given market is activity – i.e. demand and transaction numbers.

For Wiltshire property owners, I am pleased to say that both things are up over the first three months of 2025.

Of course that will be in no small part down to buyers being keen to save a bit of money on their stamp duty by pushing those purchases through by the end of March, rather than seeing them drop into April, where it could be managed.

Demand is up by around 10% year on year, with property transactions up by around 5%.

This is usually a positive sign heading into the busier Spring market – but what can we expect from the second Quarter, heading into the Summer?

How has Stamp Duty Changed from April 1^st, 2025?

I mentioned right at the beginning of this article that whilst the headlines will tell us that Stamp Duty has increased, the reality is a little more nuanced.

People (and mainly Estate Agents and Property Commentators!) will say that this Stamp Duty increase was announced in Rachel Reeves’ autumn budget, and slated to kick in as it has done on April 1^st, 2025.

But in fact, on this occasion at least, Reeves’ budget in itself wasn’t to blame.

As it happens, Stamp Duty was reduced after Kwasi Kwarteng’s so-called ‘Mini-Budget’ of September 2022. The lowest Stamp Duty tier was removed, meaning that (other than for second home buyers) no stamp duty was payable on any purchase amount between £125,000 and £250,000.

This would immediately save buyers £2,500 on any purchase exceeding £250,000.

But the thing is, this was only a temporary measure.

It was always scheduled to revert to ‘normal’ on April 1^st, 2025. Rachel Reeves didn’t schedule a Stamp Duty hike in her October Budget per se; she simply didn’t use the opportunity to extend the holiday or to reform the tax itself.

So, this isn’t exactly a tax that has increased – it is a holiday that has ended.

Which means, when you think about it, it is only what the market had to put with before September 2022… and if you can remember the 2021 market, which was fast and furious, you can see that this returning level of stamp duty is not a price that people aren’t willing to pay.

They may grumble, and of course we as local Wiltshire estate agents want to see local Wiltshire people save as much money as possible (hence our drive to close off sales yesterday where we could) – but ultimately it probably won’t have a lasting impact, not here at least.

We may see some, however, and we may just see more burden being felt elsewhere – but more on that in a moment.

The First Time Buyer Challenge

Whilst the above was all going on, First-Time Buyers had also been given a Stamp Duty Holiday, as a means of firing up the bottom end of the market – which of course creates a trickle-up effect, as it were.

In the case of First-Time Buyers, this had meant zero Stamp Duty paid up to £425,000, with 5% of the property value above that amount being paid as Stamp Duty (as long as the sale were below £625,000… sorry, it is complicated, I know. Think how we feel! But also, lodge this little titbit away for a few paragraphs time…).

Today, that 0% threshold drops from £425,000 to £300,000 for First-Time Buyers, and that ‘relief’ threshold drops from £625,000 to £500,000.

This change is likely to matter more to the market elsewhere, where property prices are more inflated. In any healthy market, first time buyers need to be buying – and in some parts of the world, that tap may be switched off – or at least, reduced to a dribble.

Here in Wiltshire however, the average price of a first-time purchase is currently £265,000 – still well under the £300,000 threshold, and a long way from £500,000 which would eliminate First-Time Buyer relief altogether. So by and large, challenging as it might be elsewhere, it is not going to spell trouble in Wiltshire – and indeed, that may help the Wiltshire property market thrive, if First Time Buyers in those more pricey neighbouring counties (Oxfordshire, for example) turn their avaricious attention in this direction, getting themselves ‘on the ladder’ – and kick-starting our local chains.

What will this all mean for the Wiltshire Property Market in 2025?

The wider effect of increased (or, as it were, reverting!) Stamp Duty from April 1 remains to be seen.

Generally speaking, we are optimistic. The groundswell of activity going into the end of March and taking us through to this second quarter has come at the right time, just as the weather is getting warmer, the clocks have gone forward, and mortgage rates have just started to edge downward. We expect that the busier, more buoyant Spring market will carry that wave of burgeoning market optimism forward.

First Time Buyers here will be largely unaffected by the change, and as for the general market, that extra £2,500 on purchase costs is admittedly a nuisance, but is one that we have seen accepted by the market before and have little reason to think that it won’t be again.

What matters to us is that we have buyers registered who want to buy somewhere to live – including First Time Buyers looking for their first home.

And where there’s that will, there is always a way.