Home buyers paid £13.7 billion in stamp duty between January and November 2025, according to an analysis of the latest HM Revenue & Customs figures by Coventry Building Society.
This was 19% higher than the £11.5 billion paid in the same period in 2024.
In November, stamp duty receipts amounted to £1.4 billion, up from £1.5 billion in October.
Coventry Building Society said this dip was due to wariness among buyers and sellers possible changes in stamp duty in anticipation of the autumn budget.
However, the Chancellor left stamp duty unchanged in the Budget, despite many predictions that the plan would be revised.
Jonathan Stinton, head of intermediary relations at Coventry Building Society, said: “Stamp Duty has long been the hidden sting in home buying. The months of speculation leading up to the Autumn Budget created a lot of uncertainty, with buyers and sellers unsure whether to continue waiting for potential changes that never came.
“With no reforms announced, Stamp Duty feels increasingly outdated and out of step with the current housing market. We are using thresholds introduced in 2014, but house prices have risen significantly since then. That disconnect means more buyers are being pulled into higher tax brackets simply because the market has evolved.
“If people are being incentivized to pay more tax by default than by design, it is clear that the system is not up to date. At the very least, there is a growing case for overhauling the system so that it better reflects modern house prices. Without this tax, home buyers will still be hamstrung by a tax that does not make sense for the current market.”