The average stamp duty bill at the end of 2007 was found to be 82 per cent higher than 2002, adding another £791 on to push the total payment up to £1,751, adding to the intense pressure already felt by first-time buyers across the country.
Subsequently, major industry players - including Halifax and propertyfinder.com - have stepped up calls for Chancellor Alistair Darling to make a serious adjustment to the current stamp duty thresholds in advance of Wednesday's Budget.
Those in the south are being hit hardest, with the research showing that the average first-time buyer pays stamp duty in 99 per cent of local authorities, compared to 42 per cent in the north of England - 19 per cent of whom were taxed at the higher 3 and 4 per cent rates.
London tends to be subject to more pronounced conditions when it comes to property prices and market fluctuations, a trend that was certainly true to form when it came to to stamp duty. The average first-timer in Greater London in 2007 was liable for a bill of £8,675 - a massive hike of 364 per cent (or £6,807) since 2007.
Indeed an individual looking to get on the property ladder in 62 per cent of London boroughs would have to pay tax at the highest rate in 2007, footing a bill equivalent to 21 per cent of annual gross full-time earnings.
The extremity of this situation in the capital has however rippled out to the wider property market with the stamp duty bill for the average first-time buyer in 30 of the 342 surveyed local authorities rising by at least £5,000 in the past five years. Outside of the south of England, Harrogate and Daventry have the highest tax bills.
Nicholas Leeming, major client director of propertyfinder.com explained: "Stamp duty has become a major earner for the Treasury, but its burden is far from evenly spread.
"Three London boroughs alone paid more stamp last year than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined! We can expect the same pattern this tax year.
“People have become so accustomed to being taxed heavily on their home – they can’t remember that this hasn’t always been the case.
"The best reforms would be to raise the lower threshold to a sensible level to help first time buyers on to the ladder, and to introduce marginal bands for everyone. These are the changes we’d like to see made in the budget."
