Revealed - Where did the stamp duty holiday cost the ...

New research by the estate agent comparison site, GetAgent, has revealed how much money the UK government lost as a result of the stamp duty holiday and where in England it was the most costly.

Comparison between previous years

The stamp duty holiday was introduced in July 2020, as one of the government’s measures to keep the property market afloat. The effects of the tax break have been profound on the property market.

In the financial year 2019-20, before the tax break was introduced, there were 996,000 residential transactions in England. In the year 2020-21, while the holiday was up and running, this rose marginally to one million transactions - a 0.4% uplift.

However, despite this growth, the amount of money the government collected through SDLT decreased drastically as a result of the holiday.

In the year 2019-20, the government gathered almost £8.4 billion through SDLT. In 2020-21, they collected just below £6 billion, a significant revenue loss of £2.4 billion (28.6%).

Regional losses and gains

The biggest regional losses in percentage terms have been seen in the West Midlands (-42.5%), the East Midlands (-42.4%), and Yorkshire & Humber (-40.3%).

Despite seeing the smallest year on year decline at 20.5%, the government endured the largest monetary losses in London with a £675 million year-on-year decrease in the level of stamp duty paid.

Despite these government losses, a housing market boom has seen the overall value of England’s housing market soar in the last financial year. In 2019-20, the combined value of England’s homes was £297 billion. By the following year, this had jumped up by 13.3% to a total of £337 billion.

The largest rise was seen in the South East where the value of residential property increased by 20%, with the East (18.2%) and South West (16.9%) also experiencing above-average growth.

Founder and chief executive officer of GetAgent.co.uk, Colby Short, commented: “The stamp duty holiday has done exactly what the government intended it to: it’s caused a surge in market activity, pushing up prices and propping up the economy during a very difficult and unpredictable time.”

Short continued: “Of course, depending on what you class as success, the jury is still out. Not only has the government lost a considerable sum in tax, a loss we are sure to stomach via alternative tax increases somewhere down the line, but the cost of buying a home is now considerably higher than it was just a year ago.”

Short concluded: “All signs suggest they’re only going to climb further in the coming months as demand continues to outstrip supply. A fact that the government surely predicted given the numerous other demand focussed initiatives they’ve introduced with the same outcome.

Residential transactions
Region	2019-20	2020-21	Change	Change (%)
England	996,000	1,000,000	4,000	0.4%
West Midlands	101,000	96,000	-5,000	-5.0%
East Midlands	93,000	91,000	-2,000	-2.2%
Yorkshire & Humber	100,000	97,000	-3,000	-3.0%
North East	46,000	45,000	-1,000	-2.2%
East of England	116,000	121,000	5,000	4.3%
North West	136,000	133,000	-3,000	-2.2%
South West	114,000	116,000	2,000	1.8%
South East	171,000	181,000	10,000	5.8%
London	119,000	120,000	1,000	0.8%
Data sourced from Gov.uk - UK Stamp Duty Tax Statistics (Transactions above £40,000 throughout each financial year) - Last updated 1st October 2021

Residential receipts (Stamp duty paid)
Region	2019-20	2020-21	Change	Change (%)
England	£8,370,000,000	£5,980,000,000	-£2,390,000,000	-28.6%
West Midlands	£400,000,000	£230,000,000	-£170,000,000	-42.5%
East Midlands	£330,000,000	£190,000,000	-£140,000,000	-42.4%
Yorkshire & Humber	£310,000,000	£185,000,000	-£125,000,000	-40.3%
North East	£105,000,000	£65,000,000	-£40,000,000	-38.1%
East of England	£920,000,000	£590,000,000	-£330,000,000	-35.9%
North West	£450,000,000	£295,000,000	-£155,000,000	-34.4%
South West	£760,000,000	£515,000,000	-£245,000,000	-32.2%
South East	£1,810,000,000	£1,300,000,000	-£510,000,000	-28.2%
London	£3,285,000,000	£2,610,000,000	-£675,000,000	-20.5%
Data sourced from Gov.uk - UK Stamp Duty Tax Statistics (Transactions above £40,000 throughout each financial year) - Last updated 1st October 2021

Residential property value
Region	2019-20	2020-21	Change	Change (%)
England	£297,150,000,000	£336,655,000,000	£39,505,000,000	13.3%
West Midlands	£22,655,000,000	£24,185,000,000	£1,530,000,000	6.8%
East Midlands	£19,805,000,000	£21,850,000,000	£2,045,000,000	10.3%
Yorkshire & Humber	£19,160,000,000	£20,600,000,000	£1,440,000,000	7.5%
North East	£7,540,000,000	£8,055,000,000	£515,000,000	6.8%
East of England	£37,300,000,000	£44,105,000,000	£6,805,000,000	18.2%
North West	£26,250,000,000	£28,825,000,000	£2,575,000,000	9.8%
South West	£32,640,000,000	£38,140,000,000	£5,500,000,000	16.9%
South East	£62,770,000,000	£75,295,000,000	£12,525,000,000	20.0%
London	£69,030,000,000	£75,600,000,000	£6,570,000,000	9.5%
Data sourced from Gov.uk - UK Stamp Duty Tax Statistics (Transactions above £40,000 throughout each financial year) - Last updated 1st October 2021