Preston ranked as the fifth-busiest property market in the UK

A sunny day above Preston Pic: Tony Worrall

New research has revealed that in the first six months since the return of Stamp Duty to pre-pandemic rates, the property market in Preston was one of the busiest in the UK for sales.

The return of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) to pre-pandemic rates on October 1, 2021 did little to put buyers off. Between then and 31 March this year, £679 million of it was paid by new homeowners, with two-thirds of this was from Londoners alone.

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By comparing the number of property sales during this period with the number of properties each location across the UK’s 100 largest towns and cities, the data from law technology specialist Access Legal, revealed that Preston had the fifth busiest property market out of all locations featured in the research. Norwich, Nottingham and Lincoln occupied the top three.

This was based on sales during the first six months since the return of pre-pandemic SDLT rates, which had been on pause by the government to help boost the property market.

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Preston was amongst ten of the busiest locations. In the city there were 1,055 registered property sales during this period out of the 65,160 properties available (one in 61.8) – the fifth busiest in the UK.

Preston is featured as the fifth busiest property market in the UK according to new research

The research also found that property buyers in London paid more than £440 million in Stamp Duty during this six month period, with an estimated £679 million generated for the treasury by the 100 locations featured in this research.

Commenting on the findings, Mike Connelly, director of conveyancing software provider Legal Bricks, an Access Legal company, said:

“This research suggests that even with the SDLT holiday ending last year, demand for housing in some parts of the UK remains high.

“We all know that buyers pay a premium to live in the South East, especially London, but the figures show just how much they’re paying in stamp duty tax alone compared to people in other parts of the country.

“First-time buyers, in particular, who also have to pay thousands of pounds in SDLT, will see a real dent in their deposits, or have to borrow more on their mortgage to pay it.”

For the full research, visit The Access Group.