Londoners are paying four times as much stamp duty as the rest of the country, according to research from London Central Portfolio.
The property firm carried out a study of stamp duty returns for 2017, including the new additional rate stamp duty of 3 per cent for all additional property purchases.
While the average stamp duty paid by buyers in England and Wales was said to be £7,161 in 2017, London buyers paid £27,232.
It found that the most expensive 10 per cent of properties contributed around 60 per cent of all stamp duty receipts with Greater London the biggest contributor to stamp duty, providing an estimated 39 per cent of the total.
Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster were found to have contributed in excess of £0.6bn.
In total, residential stamp duty receipts were found to have increased by £1.3bn in 2017 to a record sum of £9.5bn, largely as a result of the 3 per cent surcharge for second homes.
London Central Portfolio chief executive Naomi Heaton says: “Despite the continued rumble around whether the richest are paying their ‘fair share’, it is clear that they are the main contributor to Stamp Duty revenue.
“LCP’s findings indicate that the majority of the Exchequer’s £9.5bn tax take is being generated by the 10 per cent most expensive sales and that buyers in London are paying 4 times more Stamp Duty than the national average.
“The Government also needs to be careful with any further policies targeting landlords. Contributing a huge amount towards the Exchequer’s tax take, landlords have been under increased public and Government pressure over the last five years.”
