The 2 per cent increase since 2002 that this represents is pushing a lot of first-time buyers who simply cannot afford to pay this off the housing ladder for the time being.
As a result, Halifax has renewed its calls for the Chancellor to implement 'significant changes' to the Stamp Duty threshold in his March budget to bring it back in line with UK income.
After such dramatic increases in house prices over in the past decade which significantly pulled away from earnings growth during the last five years, the number of properties in the higher Stamp Duty band now stands at 5.5 million - representing a 201 per cent increase since 2002.
If the thresholds has ncreased in line with house price inflation since July 1997 - when the £250,000 and £500,000 stamp duty thresholds were introduced - they would now stand at £720,000 and £1,440,000.
Breaking these figures down on a local authority level, buyers in 118 out of 405 local authorities (LAs) now have to foot a bill which is equivalent to more than 20 per cent of average annual gross earnings, compared to only 5 per cent or 19 LAs five years ago.
Indeed the only areas where the bill crossed the 20 per cent mark in 2002 were London, the South East and the East.
In 2007, the average Stamp Duty bill was £1,971 compared to the £1,211 of 2002.
In the last five years, Chichester has seen the biggest increase in bills as a percentage of earnings, whilst Londoners and those in the South East now pay the most relative to their annual wage.
Today, homebuyers in only 2 per cent of LAs pay less than 5 per cent of earnings, compared to 38 per cent five years ago
The Treasury currently collects over £7 billion from Stamp Duty payments each year.
Martin Ellis, chief economist at Halifax, said: "The higher stamp duty thresholds have not been altered since their introduction a decade ago.
"We call on the government to raise all stamp duty thresholds to account for the rise in house prices over the past decade and to index for house price inflation in the future."
