Property Watch – September 2024 UK residential property transactions

The graph below shows the UK housing market transactions for the year to 30 September 2024 with comparatives for the same period to September 2023, as reported by HMRC through Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) and Scottish/Welsh equivalent reporting.

Monthly residential property transactions from October 2022 to September 2024

* July 2024 to September 2024 figures are provisional due to delays in collecting all relevant SDLT/LTT/LBTT reporting.

The graph above shows:

• • The September 2024 residential property transactions amounted to 94,800 transactions which were 2.0% up from September 2023 and 9.5% down from August 2024.
  • Not shown in the above graph, but the September 2024 transactions were lower than the September 2022 transactions by 19,940 transactions (17.4% lower) and lower than the September 2021 transactions by 70,930 transactions (42.8% lower).
  • The Bank of England base rate was 5.00% throughout September 2024 (5.25% throughout September 2023).

The transactions split by location in September 2024 were as follows:

	No.	%
England	79,620	84.0%
Scotland	8,840	9.3%
Wales	4,000	4.2%
Northern Ireland	2,340	2.5%
	94,800	100.0%

Key points to note:

• The large difference in transaction numbers between the September 2024 transaction numbers and the September 2021 numbers mentioned above, is due to the September 2021 numbers being artificially increased. This was because transactions were advanced due to the end of the £250k SDLT holiday enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The August 2024 transactions in the above graph are 410 higher than those reported in our August 2024 issue of this circular, this is due to more data being collected throughout the last month to support the transaction data reported.
• Transactions are perhaps not as high as expected due to the first Labour budget anticipated to result in transactions being advanced due to a fear of capital gains tax increases being announced, perhaps these transactions will be isolated to October 2024.

UK residential property transaction prices to August 2024

The latest residential price data, as provided by HM Land Registry to August 2024 (so a month out of sync with the transaction data above), shows that prices were 2.8% up at an average price of £292,924 compared to August 2023’s average of £285,073.

Residential property prices are 13.2% up from August 2021 (during COVID) when the average was £258,803 per the Land Registry data.

Property prices in August 2024 continued to experience an increase (1.52%) compared to the previous month July’s average price of £288,533.

The graphs below show the change in average residential property transaction values over the past four years and the monthly change in the year to August 2024.

Please note that the above data and trends may not be consistent with published data from other data collectors such as property sites (Rightmove etc.) or the banks and the data is liable to change as the Land Registry receives additional market information.

UK Budget property-related tax changes

On 30 October 2024, the first Labour Budget was announced.

The most significant change from a property perspective was the increase of the second home or non-natural buyer surcharge, which has increased from 3% to 5%, a significant additional cost to transactions caught by the surcharge.

There was no change announced to the planned reduction of the stamp duty nil rate band (3% bad for surcharged purchases) and this is expected to decrease from £250,000 to £125,000 from 1 April 2025. In addition, the increased thresholds for first-time buyers are expected to revert to the historic threshold of £300,000 for properties up to £500,000 from that date too.

Other previously announced measures such as the abolition of the furnished holiday let regime remain unchanged.

Capital gains for property transactions are unchanged but capital gains on shares have increased to a lower band of 18% and a main rate of 24%, bringing shares in line with property CGT rates once again. This could potentially impact landlords holding property portfolios through corporate structures if they were to sell their shares.

Ballards LLP’s property team has extensive experience acting for property-related businesses and can assist investors, developers, and associated trades with all financial property matters including tax-efficient structuring, SDLT planning, Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings planning and reporting, and any other financial matters associated with property ownership. We act for all sizes of business.

If you would like to find out how we can help, please contact Martin Adams, Tax Partner, at martin.adams@ballardsllp.com or on 01905 794 504.

View past editions of Property Watch, and other topical tax and business insights here.

Contains HM Revenue & Customs © Crown copyright data.

Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2020. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Disclaimer. This article has been prepared for information purposes only. Formal professional advice is strongly recommended before making decisions on the topics discussed in this release. No responsibility for any loss to any person acting, or not acting, as a result of this release can be accepted by us, or any person affiliated to us.