Stamp duty is deterring millions of people from moving home and weighing heavily on housing transactions, according to research from Yorkshire Building Society.
Reducing barriers to moving and restoring the number of housing transactions back to historic highs could boost the economy by £66bn over five years, the lender estimates.
Nearly one in three adults, 29%, seriously considered moving in the past year, rising to 49% among renters hoping to buy their first home.
However, people now move home on average every 21 years, compared with every nine years in the late 1980s.
Annual housing transactions have also fallen from between 1.5 million and 1.8 million in the early 2000s to between 1 million and 1.2 million today.
Yorkshire Building Society says stamp duty is a significant barrier, cited by 23% of first-time buyers, 31% of second-steppers and 35% of downsizers.
Half of downsizers, 50%, said lowering property taxes to make moving more affordable should be a government priority.
The mutual estimates each home sale generates around £27,000 in gross value added through spending on services including conveyancing, removals, renovations and furniture. This rises to as much as £66,000 when wider housing chain activity is included.
Each transaction also generates around £14,000 in tax revenue.
Housing transactions contributed almost £28bn to the UK economy in 2025 and are expected to generate a further £157bn over the next five years, alongside up to £80bn in tax revenue.
Yorkshire Building Society estimates that restoring transaction levels to those seen in the early 2000s, with around 500,000 additional moves a year, could generate a further £66bn of economic value over five years.
Yorkshire Building Society managing director of homes Tom Simpson says: “Our research shows that too many people who are ready for their next move – whether they are buying their first home, moving somewhere with more space or downsizing later in life – find themselves held back by the costs involved in moving.
“When fewer people move, the effects are felt right across the housing market. It becomes harder for first-time buyers to find suitable homes, families can struggle to move as their needs change, and the wider economy misses out on valuable revenue.”
The mutual is calling for an industry-wide discussion on replacing stamp duty with what it describes as a fairer and more proportionate property tax.
Simpson adds: “Increasing transactions by just half-a-million a year – which is possible given where we were in the early 2000s – would make a huge difference.”
He says that increasing transactions is vital for a buoyant housing market to support first-time buyers, allow for employment mobility and enable downsizing.
