2025 SDLT changes have caused a shift in regions
HMLR dealing application volumes are growing fastest across the North, a shift that is driven mostly by the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) threshold changes in April 2025, which lowered the nil-rate threshold to £125,000 and disproportionately slowed down higher-value southern sales. Meanwhile, average house prices in northern regions now sit at 58% of southern levels, the narrowest gap since 2013.
The figures are part of Access Legal’s State of the UK Conveyancing Market 2026, which analysed 15 months of published HM Land Registry data to understand how economic shifts and regional dynamics are shaping the UK housing and conveyancing sectors.
It showed that Greater London recorded the weakest dealing application growth nationally, at 21.0% year-on-year when comparing April to June 2026 against the same period in 2025. The strongest increases were recorded in the North, at 30.1%, and the North West, at 29.4%. Yorkshire and the Humber grew by 27.2%, and the West Midlands by 27.8%.
‘A clear dividing line’
Andrew Stevens, general manager at Access Legal, said: “The UK property market is expanding far beyond London, and it is this regional growth that is now driving national DLG volumes. The reversion of the SDLT threshold in April 2025 created a clear dividing line, where the more affordable regional markets have recovered fastest.”
He claimed this was also driving a trend for more locally-based conveyancers. “Homebuyers in these booming regional markets are actively seeking out legal teams that are rooted in their own communities,” he said.
“As regional markets strengthen, the firms best positioned to capture that growth are those with the operational infrastructure to handle rising volume without compromising on the client experience.”
