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Post updated: July 28th, 2026
KEY INFORMATION
Here’s the latest UK property tax news for July 2026, including developments affecting stamp duty, council tax and the mansion tax.
Andy Burnham has ruled out changing or scrapping stamp duty in the Government’s next Budget.
Asked whether stamp duty would be changed or abolished, the Prime Minister said: “Yes, I can say that quite clearly. That won’t be happening.”
He also rejected reports that the Government was preparing to replace stamp duty and council tax with a single annual property tax, saying: “It’s just not the case that we are bringing forward plans on that scale at this moment in time.”
For buyers and movers, this means the existing stamp duty system will remain in place for now and there is no need to delay a transaction in anticipation of stamp duty being abolished any time soon.
However, the PM said the Government was still seeking “to make taxation fairer”, so more limited property tax changes could be considered in future.
In his first major interview as Prime Minister, with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Burnham criticised regional inequalities in the council tax system.
He said: “There are people here in Greater Manchester who pay a much higher council tax than people living in much larger homes in London.”
Burnham highlighted the failure to update council tax bands, which are still based on property values from 1991, and described previous moves to make owners of more valuable homes contribute more as “right and fair”.
However, he did not announce a replacement for council tax. He also said that any future changes would need to be consistent with Labour’s election manifesto.
Reports have suggested that Andy Burnham could lower the threshold at which homeowners begin paying the planned High Value Council Tax Surcharge from £2 million to £1.5 million.
An estimated 150,000 additional households could have to pay the surcharge if the levy was brought down to the reduced amount, based on calculations done by think tank Tax Policy Associates.
Around two-fifths of homes estimated to be worth £1.5 million or more have never had a sale recorded by the Land Registry, according to new research, reports the Financial Times.
The newspaper says the figures underline the scale of the challenge facing the government in ‘judging with any confidence’ which homes in England will be liable for its planned mansion tax.
Richard Donnell, executive director at Zoopla, said: “There is a lot more complexity to valuation in the top 1 per cent of the housing market. The challenge is, how do you build confidence that the valuations are correct?”
If the planned mansion tax were brought in today it would affect significantly fewer homes than if it had been enacted when the policy was announced in November, valuation data shows, reports The Financial Times.
Estate agent Hamptons created an automated valuation model that showed how the number of homes above £2 million has changed over time, even when a home had not been sold for a long period.
Its analysis showed there were 8,800 fewer £2 million plus homes in England than when the mansion tax was announced in the autumn Budget.
“This fall is likely to mean the tax raises around £28 million less per year than it would have done in November 2025, or around £50 million a year less than if it had been introduced in 2022,” said Aneisha Beveridge, research director at Hamptons.
On 19 May, the Government launched a consultation on how the mansion tax could work. The consultation closed on 14 July 2026, and the Government is now considering the responses.
The consultation explored the possibility of applying a “non-resident premium” on top of the High Value Council Tax Surcharge.
The consultation said: “In high‑pressure housing markets, particularly in areas such as London, there is interest in understanding whether demand from non‑UK resident owners may be contributing to pressures on housing availability and prices.”
House buyers and sellers are striking deals just below mansion tax thresholds to avoid the tax, The Telegraph reports.
In February 2026, 83% of offers on homes priced within 10% of £2m came in below the £2m mark, compared with just 64% a year earlier, according to data from estate agency Hamptons.
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“This means ‘empty nesters’ and people who bought their property decades ago simply as a family home, not as an investment, will now have to cough up thousands just to continue living in their own home,” he said.
The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates around 165,000 households will be hit by the mansion tax.
Homeowners in London and the South East would bear most of the brunt of the new property tax. Around 50% of all properties in England valued at over £2 million are in London and 85% in the South East, Hamptons analysis shows.
Paula Higgins, CEO of HomeOwners Alliance, said:
“It’s clear the government wants higher-value homes to contribute more. Now the mansion tax consultation has closed, homeowners need clarity about how valuations, appeals, payment arrangements and exemptions will work in practice. We remain sceptical about whether the revaluation needed for this mansion tax can be delivered cleanly and on time.
“Another key concern for homeowners is whether this is the thin end of the wedge? Once measures are introduced, they have a habit of being extended or thresholds not being updated, and more people end up paying tax as a result. This mansion tax could quickly become relevant for more homeowners than the Chancellor anticipates.
“We expect these arbitrary thresholds of a mansion tax will distort the market, which OBR has recognised will cause bunching of sales just below the thresholds.”
The main UK property taxes are:
Property income tax rates will rise by 2% from April 2027, the chancellor also announced in her 2025 Budget. Property income tax will rise by 2% across basic, higher and additional rates, taking these to 22%, 42% and 47%, respectively.
The Office for Budget Responsibility said this will raise around £500 million a year in extra tax.
However, Hamptons head of research Aneisha Beveridge said: “Those operating through limited companies will remain unaffected, but for individual landlords who make up the bulk of the market and who are already squeezed by higher borrowing costs and previous tax changes, this could accelerate the trend of investors exiting the market.
“Over time, that risks reducing rental supply and pushing rents higher.”
Together with the mansion tax, these measures signal a broader shift in UK property tax policy towards higher ongoing costs for high value property ownership and for property investors.
Homeowners up and down the country started to worry last autumn when former Chancellor Rachel Reeves left open the idea of higher property taxes at the Labour Party Conference on 29 September.
Before the 2025 Budget, reports suggested that the Government could consider replacing stamp duty with a national proportional property tax charged on homes above a certain value.
Officials were also reported to be considering whether a new local property tax could eventually replace council tax.
Neither proposal appeared in the Budget.
Following further speculation in July 2026, new Prime Minister Andy Burnham explicitly ruled out changing or scrapping stamp duty in the next Budget. He also rejected reports that the Government was preparing to replace stamp duty and council tax with a single annual property tax at this stage.
However, Burnham has continued to criticise the unfairness of the council tax system. So watch this space. Read more about how this could affect you in Andy Burnham’s Potential Policies: What they could mean for homeowners and sign up to our newsletter to be the first to know.
The new mansion tax will be paid by homeowners whose properties in England are valued at more than £2 million. It will be the property owner, rather than the occupier or tenant, who is liable for the tax. The planned surcharge will be added to existing council tax bills from April 2028, with annual charges ranging from £2,500 to £7,500 depending on the value of the property.
Further UK property tax changes are possible beyond 2026. The government has already confirmed that property income tax rates will rise from April 2027, increasing costs for many landlords. While wider reforms such as replacing stamp duty or council tax have not gone ahead, experts warn that thresholds and charges introduced under new property taxes, including the mansion tax, may be reviewed or extended over time.
There have been reports that the threshold could be reduced from £2 million to £1.5 million, but the Government has not confirmed this.
Analysis by Tax Policy Associates estimates that around 150,000 additional homes could be affected if the threshold were reduced. Until a formal announcement is made, homeowners should treat this as speculation rather than confirmed policy. Read more in our guide to mansion tax valuations
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