Rightmove said on Monday that rumours of a major property tax overhaul ahead of the Autumn Budget would pile further pressure on London and the south-east housing markets, which the portal already identifies as "performing less strongly." Policy ideas reported in the press include a national proportional property tax on homes worth over £500,000 and the imposition of national insurance contributions for landlords.
The portal’s analysis suggests the changes would be geographically concentrated: if stamp duty were reworked on properties above £500,000, nearly 60% of sales in London would be affected, compared with 22% across England and 8% in the North East. Rightmove also highlighted that 11% of London homes are priced at £1.5 million or more and would be subject to a proposed mansion tax versus an average of 2% outside the capital.
Coleen Babcock, a property expert at Rightmove, said rumours began circulating in mid-August and that the long lead time to the Budget, scheduled for the end of November, can suppress activity in higher-price brackets as potential sellers and buyers "reassess their short-term and medium-term plans." Rightmove said it had not detected any "major shifts" yet but warned that the proposals risked "exacerbating regional divides."
Rightmove’s latest monthly figures showed the average asking price for homes on the market across Britain rose by £1,517, or 0.4%, in September to £370,257. Asking prices remain 0.1% lower than at the same point a year earlier after several months of muted growth, a dip driven largely by London and the south of England. The number of homes for sale in the south of England was up 9% year-on-year, compared with 2% across the rest of Great Britain, and it takes an average of five days longer to find a buyer in the south.
Sales agreed nationally were 4% higher than a year earlier, with the south up 3% and the rest of Britain up 5%. Regional price movements varied: the south west recorded a 1.3% annual fall in new asking prices, the West Midlands was the only more northern region to record an annual drop, and the north west saw a 3.2% rise.
Estate agent Jeremy Leaf, a north London agent and former Residential chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, cautioned that Rightmove tracks asking prices rather than achieved sale values. "Asking prices are not achieved values but often owners’ or agents’ aspirational starting points," he said, adding that some vendors' unrealistic expectations were limiting activity despite continued sales in more affordable areas.
Tomer Aboody, director at specialist lender MT Finance, said the affordability challenge for first-time buyers persists and urged stamp duty reform to encourage more homes to come to market. "Stamp duty reform is urgently needed to allow more homes to come to the market, so that downsizers are encouraged to sell and enabling families to buy," he said.
Market participants also pointed to recent Bank of England policy as a factor in affordability. On Aug. 7 the BoE cut interest rates from 4.25% to 4%, the lowest level since March 2023, and analysts broadly expect the central bank to hold rates at its September decision.
Rightmove said competitive pricing by sellers, together with static house prices, rising wages and lower mortgage rates, has supported an increase in sales agreed compared with a year ago. Nonetheless, the property portal warned that any confirmed tax changes concentrated on higher-priced markets could deepen existing regional imbalances in the UK housing market ahead of the Autumn Budget.