National statistics

UK monthly property transactions background and references

Updated 28 March 2024

1. Background to property and land transactions taxes

Stamp Duty Land Tax in England and Northern Ireland

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is payable on the purchase or transfer of most property or land in England and Northern Ireland. SDLT replaced Stamp Duty on Land and Property from 1 December 2003. Go to Stamp duty and other tax on property for links to detailed SDLT background information. 

Most SDLT transactions will be notified to HMRC directly on electronic or paper returns (even if no tax is due). Purchasers have 14 days from the date transactions were completed to submit SDLT returns. Purchasers do not have to notify HMRC if the value of transactions is less than £40,000.

Prior to 1 March 2019, taxpayers had 30 days to submit SDLT returns. This means that transactions statistics in England and Northern Ireland from before and after 1 March 2019 are not directly comparable.

From 1 April 2021, different rates for non-UK resident purchasers of residential property in England and Northern Ireland were introduced. Go to Rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax for non-UK residents for further guidance.

Stamp Duty Land Tax rates

SDLT is charged at different rates depending upon the value of the property or land, whether it is to be used for residential or non-residential purposes and whether the property is sold as a freehold or leasehold.

Go to Stamp Duty Land Tax guidance for the latest rates.

Go to Stamp Duty Land Tax rates from 1 December 2003 to 22 September 2022 and Stamp Duty: rates on land transfers before December 2003 for historic rates.

Land and Buildings Transaction Tax in Scotland

Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) replaced SDLT in Scotland from 1 April 2015 and transactions have been administered by the Scottish Government from this date. Go to Revenue Scotland for LBTT details and rates.

Land Transaction Tax in Wales

Land Transaction Tax (LTT) replaced SDLT in Wales from 1 April 2018 and transactions have been administered by the Welsh Government from this date. Go to Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA) for LTT details and rates.

2. UK monthly property transactions methodology

Data Sources

Property transactions statistics for England and Northern Ireland are sourced from the HMRC SDLT database which is based upon information submitted by taxpayers within SDLT returns.

Transactions are recorded within the HMRC SDLT database by ‘date of completion’. The ‘Monthly property transactions completed in the UK with value of £40,000 or above’ statistical release reports transactions on the same basis.

Following devolution of property taxes to the Scottish Government from 1 April 2015, HMRC have not collected data for transactions in Scotland. To continue publishing Scottish transactions statistics, Revenue Scotland provide HMRC with a monthly data feed of LBTT transactions.

Following devolution of property taxes to the Welsh Government from 1 April 2018, HMRC have not collected data for transactions in Wales.

To continue publishing Welsh transactions statistics, HMRC use the latest LTT transactions statistics for the period of April 2018 to the penultimate month, as published by the WRA. From April 2018, LTT transactions for the latest month were estimated by HMRC based upon year on year growth in line with other UK nations.

From July 2021, the WRA now provide HMRC with a monthly data feed of LTT transactions. Figures for the latest month are estimated using a grossing factor based on data for the most recent and complete financial year. Transactions up to the penultimate month are aligned with LTT statistics.

Not all property transactions are captured within these sources. Alongside transactions where the chargeable value is less than £40,000, other examples of where no return is required include transfers in connection with divorce and some grants of leases of less than 7 years.

Statistical release timing, provisional statistics and revisions

To produce monthly property transactions statistics in time for publication each month, a ‘snapshot’ of the HMRC SDLT database is taken in the second week of the month. This snapshot point is maintained for consistency and to provide users an effective balance between accurate and timely estimates.

Because the latest statistics are based upon a snapshot of transactions, they are marked as ‘provisional estimates’ within the release. As transactions statistics generally settle after around 3 months, they are also marked as ‘provisional’ for the next 2 months in which they are published.

Historic transactions may also be revised between releases when late returns are received from taxpayers and corrections made to the SDLT, LBTT and LTT databases by HMRC, Revenue Scotland and WRA. Revisions are marked as ‘revised’ where appropriate and large revisions explained to users.

Although HMRC aim to provide the most accurate property transactions estimates, the seasonality of the property market means that upward or downward revisions are expected in months after when statistics are first published.

Publication of provisional estimates for transactions during the latest month are also timed to complement housing market data from other sources which are released within similar timeframes.

Grossing factor

Not all SDLT returns for transactions in the latest month will have been received by HMRC when figures are compiled. Latest estimates are therefore based upon incomplete data.

An upward adjustment is used to estimate the scale of these unreceived SDLT returns. This estimate is based upon an average of transactional change over the previous full financial year. Because of this, changes between months for the most recent data should not be given too much weight.

From May 2016, the adjustment used for unreceived LBTT transactions in Scotland during the most recent month has been calculated separately using LBTT data provided by Revenue Scotland.

Seasonal adjustment

The number of property transactions in the UK is highly seasonal, with increased activity during summer months and less in winter. This regular annual pattern can sometimes hide underlying movements and trends within the data series.

Because of this, HMRC also provides seasonally adjusted estimates for transactions at UK level within the release.

The seasonally adjusted data series are estimated using X-13ARIMA software, as standard for National Statistics. Adjustments are made to the seasonal adjustment model for both the time of year and calendar, including corrections for the position of Easter holidays and the number of trading days during particular months.

From November 2016 there were minor revisions made to previously published transaction figures following review of our seasonal adjustment model.

Rounding

As the reporting of transactions involves estimation, statistics are rounded to the nearest ten to indicate this uncertainty.

Any apparent discrepancies within the release between totals and the sum of its constituent parts is due to rounding.

Country breakdown

The split of transactions between England and Northern Ireland is based upon location of property or land as declared within SDLT returns by taxpayers. There are a small minority of cases where this information is not recorded. These transactions are allocated to either England or Northern Ireland on a pro-rata basis to maintain recorded proportions.

Pre-release access to statistics

The ‘Monthly property transactions completed in the UK with value of £40,000 or above’ statistical release provides pre-release access to the statistics for a limited number of HMRC and HM Treasury (HMT) stakeholders. Pre-release access is provided in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

 The amount of individuals with pre-access is regularly reviewed and HMRC maintains records of those with current pre-release access to the departments National Statistics.

Statistical quality

These statistics are based on administrative data collected by HMRC in the process of completing its departmental duties (collecting tax). Statistics go through detailed quality assurance before being released.

The quality of these statistics is dependent upon what they are used for. Definitions used within this publication are defined by SDLT legislation, and whether or not a property transaction is counted within the estimates is dependent on the submission of a return.

Transactions where no return is required, or is required but not submitted, will not be counted in the estimates. Statistics therefore provide a good indication of the trend in the numbers of residential and non-residential property transactions but may not accurately reflect the total number of properties bought, sold or transferred.

Statistics at HMRC

Go to statistics at HMRC for further information on the departments National and Official Statistics.

3. Contacts

The ‘Monthly property transactions completed in the UK with value with value of £40,000’ or above’ statistical release is produced by the Indirect Tax Receipts Monitoring team as part of the ‘Property transactions in the UK’ collection.

• Organisation Unit - Knowledge, Analysis and Intelligence (KAI)

• Name – R Meldrum

• Function - Statistics Producers, Indirect Taxes

• Mail address - HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), 100 Parliament Street, London SW1A 2BQ

For statistical enquiries, contact:  stamptaxes.statistics@hmrc.gov.uk                                                                                                                                                  

For media enquiries see HMRC press office.  

4. Publication calendar                                                                                                                                            

The ‘Monthly property transactions completed in the UK with value of £40,000 or above’ statistical release is published on the 21st calendar day of the month but is delayed whenever the 21st calendar day is a non-working day or a Monday.

Go to research and statistics for future release date announcements. Announcements are published no later than 4 weeks before the release date.

5. User engagement

HMRC welcomes user engagement to improve the departments National and Official Statistics. You can contact statistics producers on GOV.UK.

Users

UK property transaction statistics are used by government and policy makers, analysts, academics, media, businesses, public bodies and the public.

User feedback has helped shape the development and content of this publication and will continue to influence future enhancements.

Uses

These statistics are produced primarily to enable monitoring of trends in the UK residential and non-residential housing markets. Within HMRC and HMT, they are primarily used by policy makers in the development of housing and tax policy, ministerial briefings and responding to queries from the public.

Outside of HMRC and HMT, past user engagement has highlighted several examples for how these statistics are used, including:

• market analysts and media to examine and report on the latest movements in the UK property market and wider economy

• other government departments and policy makers in understanding the impact of past policy changes and to inform decisions on future policy

• academics and analysts to look at longer term trends in the UK property market

• businesses using the statistics to understand the property market or to plan business strategies

• use of the country breakdowns to help inform research on market movements at national levels

These statistics are best used in conjunction with other monthly housing market indicators.

6. National Statistics

National Statistics are accredited official statistics 

The ‘Monthly property transactions completed in the UK with value of £40,000 or above’ statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in June 2013. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

National Statistics status can generally be interpreted to mean that statistics:

• meet user needs

• are effectively communicated and accessible

• undergo regular quality assurance reviews

• produced professionally and according to sound methods

• managed impartially in the public interest and free from political interference                                                                                                                                       

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). 

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailing stamptaxes.statistics@hmrc.gov.uk

Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

7. Related statistics

There are multiple other National and Official Statistics publications relevant to the UK housing market:

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) publish statistics on council tax and private rental market.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and HM Land Registry both also produce statistics on UK House Prices.

ONS also publish the ‘House price statistics for small areas in England and Wales’ statistical bulletin.

Previously, ONS published the now discontinued ‘Economic Trends - Annual Supplement’, which reported the number of property transactions between 1959 to 2005.

HMRC publish additional detailed stamps duties statistics.

The National Archives also hosts archived Stamp Duty releases.