The bank based the calculation on the average house price in England and Wales (£273,531). Under the previous calculation buyers would have paid £8,205, but now the cost has fallen to £3,676 – a saving of £4,529.
Only buyers paying more than £938,000 on homes are worse off under the new stamp duty structure. The top end of the market seems to have been dampened down as a result, as sales above £925,000 have dropped by 10% in the first half of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014.
London has taken the brunt of stamp duty, as buyers in the capital have contributed 40% of all stamp duty revenues in 2014-15 compared with 13% of all property transactions.
Craig McKinlay, mortgages director at Halifax, said: “The changes made to stamp duty a year ago have been of significant benefit to many buyers.
“Only those purchasing the most expensive homes are worse off. There is some evidence that the top end of the market has been adversely affected by the changes with sales over £1.5 million falling by twice as much as the market as a whole.
“The failure to index the start point for stamp duty in line with house price inflation has dragged more buyers into the tax net in recent years. Buyers in London have been particularly badly affected with the capital accounting for an increasing and disproportionately large share of stamp duty revenues."
