Research shows property sales recovery

July 4, 2025 by Brendan O'Neill

News

Property Market

The latest seasonally adjusted figures indicate that residential property transactions recovered during May this year, following a dip in the previous month.

These figures have been issued by HMRC and they show that there were a total of 81,470 transactions in May. This is a significant increase in comparison with the previous month, when the total was 65,110. It amounts to a month-on-month rise of 25%, which is a striking recovery for that area of the market.

The sharp dip in residential transactions across April was blamed on the lowering of the Stamp Duty threshold at the start of the month.

From the 1st of April, both the nil-rate threshold and the first-time buyer one were lowered. The former was reduced to £125,000 from £250,000, while the latter was cut to £300,000 from £425,000. These changes made many more buyers liable to pay Stamp Duty on their property purchases.

There were concerns that it would have a long-term cooling effect on the market, but now the early signs are that this may not be the case. It is important to put the May recovery in wider context though. When compared with the same month for last year, residential transaction numbers were 12% lower.

Talking to Financial Reporter, Richard Donnell from Zoopla said:

“The Stamp Duty holiday continues to impact transaction volumes with 13% fewer sales in May 2025 compared to last year, as buyers brought forward sales ahead of the deadline for lower Stamp Duty costs.”

Those with CeMAP training will likely be monitoring this situation.