Sellers agree to bigger discounts as first-time buyers rush to beat stamp duty changes

Property owners across England and Wales became more amenable to discounting their homes in the final quarter of 2024, according to fresh data from Hamptons.

Property owners across England and Wales became more amenable to discounting their homes in the final quarter of 2024, according to fresh data from Hamptons.

The estate agency’s figures show that the median discount has jumped from £2,000 in Q3 to £5,000 in Q4 – outstripping the maximum £2,500 stamp duty rise looming in April. Even so, the average seller still achieved 98.1% of their asking price.

In the same period, first-time buyers secured a median discount of £2,000, with those purchasing above £300,000 able to negotiate savings of £5,000. Hamptons attributes this to growing urgency among new buyers to complete transactions before April 2025, when the first-time buyer stamp duty threshold will drop from £425,000 to £300,000. The agency estimates that this shift will mean 26% of first-time buyers become liable for the tax, up from the current 8%.

As a result, first-time buyers represented a record 31.8% of all home purchases in Great Britain during November and December 2024. Notably, there was a spike in first-time buyer activity at the higher end of the market, with over 20% of homes above the £425,000 mark snapped up by new buyers in the last two months of the year. By contrast, more affordable regions such as Wales and the North East saw a slight dip in first-time buyer share, largely because many purchasers there will remain below the revised threshold.

Looking ahead, Hamptons expects this flurry of buyer activity to continue in the run-up to April’s tax changes, with sellers likely to remain flexible on pricing to secure a sale.