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The variety of properties “flipped” in England and Wales hit a file 12 yr low, as rising stamp obligation prices worn out traders’ earnings, new evaluation confirmed.
Flipped properties — properties purchased, then re-sold inside a yr — accounted for simply 2.3 per cent of all residential property transactions within the first monetary quarter of 2025, down from 3.6 per cent the earlier yr, in accordance with analysis from property agent Hamptons.
This was the bottom proportion since 2013, the place flipped properties additionally accounted for two.3 per cent of transactions, because the housing market suffered from the lingering results of the 2008 monetary disaster.
Buyers who flip properties goal to make a revenue usually from renovating the property they’ve purchased and promoting it a better worth.
Nonetheless, the typical gross revenue made by an investor additionally fell, in accordance with Hamptons’ information, declining from 17 per cent within the first quarter of 2015 to 10 per cent in 2025, as a result of weaker home worth development and a shift in the direction of flipping cheaper properties.
This sharp drop in investor earnings may be accredited to modifications in laws inflicting stamp obligation payments on flipped properties to rise to a mean of £6,375 on preliminary purchases in the course of the first quarter.
Stamp obligation land tax (SDLT) payments now value the typical particular person flipping a house in England and Wales a file 30 per cent of their gross revenue, averaging at £11,920 in accordance with Hamptons.
“Larger stamp obligation payments are wiping out a number of revenue from flipping,” mentioned Aneisha Beveridge, head of analysis at Hamptons. “Stamp obligation payments now account for practically a 3rd of gross earnings.”
Beveridge added in some circumstances that “payments are actually greater than the price of renovating the property” and paired with rising materials and labour prices could make “flipping properties an more and more difficult enterprise”.
In keeping with tradesperson platform Checkatrade, the typical value of renovating a property is £76,690, together with new gasoline and heating techniques, rewiring electrics and replastering partitions.
Matt Thompson, head of gross sales at property agent Chestertons, voiced related considerations: “A variety of traders who concentrate on flipping property have discovered that their return on funding has decreased over the previous years.
“Key components are usually not solely greater property costs in sought-after or up and coming areas but in addition greater labour and building materials prices.”
Decrease returns, predominantly as a result of greater stamp obligation prices, finally diminished the variety of worthwhile flipped properties. Despite 80 per cent of properties being offered for greater than they have been purchased, solely 66 per cent made a revenue following the fee of stamp obligation.
Simply 7,301 flipped properties have been offered within the first quarter, practically 30 per cent under the 10-year first-quarter common.
“It [second home stamp duty surcharge] has multiplied prices for these people who find themselves refurbishing properties to a degree that’s more and more unviable,” added Beveridge.
“These are sometimes empty properties . . . and are usually tasks which most first-time consumers and movers have shied away from.”
Rising prices have “pushed traders additional north”, the place property costs and due to this fact stamp obligation prices are decrease, with 61 per cent of flipped properties being within the Midlands, north of England or Wales.
In distinction, the costly southern area skilled the most important declines within the share of flipped properties, with simply 1.5 per cent of properties being offered this yr in London being purchased up to now 12 months.
