Property transactions falter despite rise in number of homes available
Homebuying in the UK slowed in April after the end of the stamp duty holiday, despite an uptick in the number of properties available.
The number of UK residential transactions in April 2025 was 64,680, 28 per cent lower than April 2024 and 64 per cent lower than March 2025, according to official statistics.
Estate agents attributed the drop to the end of the stamp duty holiday in March, which caused a rush of housebuying from first-time buyers as they looked to avoid thousands in 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,” Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark said.
“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.
According to some estate agents, the April property figures are a natural dip following the stamp duty deadline and will naturally reverse as the year goes on.
The market does already seem to be changing: data from Zoopla earlier this week found 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 UK growth forecast and the Bank of England’s recent base rate cut underpinning greater confidence from buyers,” Nick Leeming, chairman of Jackson-Stops, said.
Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman, said 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 said.