Research by the estate agent comparison site, GetAgent.co.uk, has uncovered how much money the UK government lost as a result of the stamp duty holiday and where in England it was the most costly.
In the financial year 2019-20, before the holiday was introduced, there were 996,000 residential transactions in England. In the year 2020-21, while the holiday was in full swing, this increased marginally to one million transactions - a 0.4% uplift.
However, despite this increase, the amount of money the government collected through SDLT declined significantly as a result of the holiday.
In the year 2019-20, the government collected almost £8.4 billion through SDLT. In 2020-21, they collected just under £6 billion, a revenue loss of £2.4 billion (28.6%).
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 £675m year on year decline 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 increase in the last financial year. In 2019-20, the combined value of England’s homes was £297 billion. By the following year, this had increased by 13.3% to a total of £337 billion.
The largest increase 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.
Colby Short, Founder and CEO of GetAgent.co.uk, 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.
"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.
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.”
