Is Stamp Duty changing?

November 12, 2025

The UK property market has grown strongly in 2025. The latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows that house prices are up almost 3% in the last year, and the total number of transactions has increased by approximately 4%.

Almost all of those transactions will have incurred Stamp Duty Land Tax. That includes every property purchased as an investment, meaning that SDLT is something every investor needs to know about. Unless you are investing in Purpose-Built Student Accommodation, you will be liable to pay it every time you buy UK investment property.

The cost is worked out as a percentage of the overall sale price over certain thresholds, which have only seen minor changes in recent years.

However, there is talk that SDLT may be changing in the upcoming November 2025 Budget – read on to learn more about potential SDLT changes and how they might affect buy-to-let property investors.

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Why might Stamp Duty be changing in the UK?

SDLT is a highly lucrative tax for the UK government. In the last full financial year on record, the government earned:

£8.6bn from SDLT on residential property
£245m from SDLT charged to overseas investor

That is a significant sum of money, so every government gives it a lot of attention. That could mean freezing it, raising it or changing some thresholds to meet political goals – but whatever the outcome, SDLT is always a topic of conversation around Budget time.

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Will Stamp Duty be changed in the November 2025 Budget?

The discussion started when the opposition Conservative Party stated it was in favour of abolishing SDLT entirely at its party conference in October 2025. While this made headlines, it is unlikely it will ever happen. The government needs the almost £9bn of tax receipts generated by property each year, so they cannot simply get rid of SDLT without a replacement.

It is also likely that abolishing Stamp Duty without replacing it would make it more expensive to purchase homes. Asking prices would go up and investing in UK property would become more expensive, cancelling out any benefit to buyers.

The governing Labour Party is also rumoured to be considering an SDLT change, with many analysts expecting a ‘radical’ overhaul of the system.

One proposal is to replace SDLT with a new national tax on properties sold for more than £500,000. Instead of the buyer paying a lump sum up front, the seller would have to pay a tax on the value of their property when they sell it. The potential effects of this would be:

Removing the SDLT burden for people purchasing lower-value homes
Only 20% of property transactions would be liable, compared to approximately 60% now
Unblocking many property transactions which are currently held up by SDLT

It is important to note that these proposed changes would not remove or replace SDLT on second homes, so investors will still be liable to pay it when buying properties.

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Investors are unlikely to be affected by any Stamp Duty changes

Overall, buy-to-let property investors are unlikely to be affected by any rumoured or proposed changes to the SDLT rules. Any overhaul of the system will not include changes for landlords, so you will still have to pay SDLT when adding to your property portfolio.

On the other hand, there are also no rumours of charges increasing, so we are not anticipating that SDLT will become a larger cost for landlords than it is today.

While there may be other housing and property taxation and law changes that could affect landlords in the November Budget, SDLT is unlikely to be among them.

Want to know more about the UK property and investment market? Read our latest UK property market insights and then get in touch with the team to discuss our latest buy-to-let investment opportunities.

Is Stamp Duty changing?

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