UK households face £2,500 bill which 83 per cent will 'by law' have to pay

Stamp duty could push house prices up in 2025. After a Labour Party change, increases will be steeper across the Midlands, Northern England, Scotland and Wales according to early projections, with the number of people paying the tax jumping to 83 per cent - up from 50 per cent.

Most will an additional £2,500. First-time buyers will also feel the impact, with the number required to pay stamp duty doubling to 40 per cent, according to predictions after the Labour Party Budget last month, from Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Executive director of the research and insight team at Zoopla Richard Donnell said: "We expect house prices and sales volumes to edge higher in 2025, despite budget changes and uncertainty about whether mortgage rates will continue to fall.

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"The housing market has been very resilient in the face of higher borrowing costs over the last two years. We expect house price growth in southern England to under-perform the UK average over 2025 and into 2026." Property experts from both Zoopla and Knight Frank are predicting just a 2.5 per cent annual increase in the average property price in 2025.

This would be a slowdown on current levels of growth being recorded by some house price indices. House prices rose 3.9 per cent year-on-year in October, according to Halifax's latest figures, while the most recent data from the ONS has annual house price growth running at 2.9 per cent in the 12 months to September.

Mortgage rates have jumped since the Chancellor Ms Reeves set out her economic plans in the Budget back on October 30, 2024. Since early October, the lowest five year fixed rate mortgage has risen from 3.68 per cent to 4.14 per cent while the lowest two year fix has gone from 3.84 per cent to 4.22 per cent.