º£½ÇÊÓƵ homebuying activity decelerated in April following the conclusion of the stamp duty holiday, despite a rise in available properties.
Official statistics revealed that the number of º£½ÇÊÓƵ residential transactions in April 2025 was 64,680, a decrease of 28 per cent from April 2024 and a significant 64 per cent drop from March 2025, as reported by .
Estate agents have attributed this decline to the termination of the stamp duty holiday in March, which had prompted a surge in house purchases from first-time buyers seeking to evade hefty property taxes.
"Today's figures demonstrate the challenging journey many who approached the buying and selling process were experiencing just prior to the Stamp Duty threshold changes before April," stated Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark.
"These challenges have escalated to this day thanks to a delicate global economy, inflation currently sitting at 3.5 per cent, whereas that inflation figure was 2.6 per cent during the timeframe of today's figures, and the Bank of England rightly displaying caution regarding any lowering of the base rate," he added.
Some estate agents suggest that the April property figures represent a natural downturn following the stamp duty deadline and predict a natural recovery as the year progresses.
The market already appears to be shifting: data from Zoopla earlier this week indicated that May was the busiest month for agreed home sales since the 2021 pandemic boom.
"There remain reasons to be positive, with the IMF's upgraded 2025 º£½ÇÊÓƵ growth forecast and the Bank of England's recent base rate cut underpinning greater confidence from buyers," said Nick Leeming, chairman of Jackson-Stops.
Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent and former RICS residential chairman, commented that the data "does not tell the whole story".
"On the ground, the significant number of purchases brought forward [due to the stamp duty deadline] means there have been fewer deals since then but little evidence of widespread renegotiation or withdrawals despite rising stock levels and uncertainty about the pace of mortgage payment reductions," he added.
