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Property tax rumours

ended 29. September 2025

A journalist at Thisismoney / Mail Online is writing an article on whether property tax rumours have paralysed the property market — and whether it would help if Rachel Reeves confirmed or denied the rumours? Any thoughts, ASAP please as the deadline is tight.

11 responses from the Newspage community

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Ken James
Director at Contractor Mortgage Services
Chinese whispers of sweeping property tax reforms under Rachel Reeves are paralysing parts of the housing market. Talk of new levies on high-value homes, capital gains on sales, or re-banded council tax has left buyers and sellers in “wait-and-see” mode, especially at the top end. Reports point to stalled transactions and widening gaps between asking prices and offers. Mortgage costs and wider economic pressures matter, but uncertainty is clearly amplifying the slowdown. The UK market needs clarity. A firm confirmation or denial from Reeves could unlock the paralysis.
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Omer Mehmet
Managing Director at Trinity Finance
The Chancellor is spooking the housing market before she’s even touched the tax system. Rumours of new property taxes have frozen buyers and sellers alike, creating paralysis where we desperately need momentum. If Rachel Reeves thinks she can keep quiet and cash in later, she’s wrong — the damage is already being done. Clarity now would cost her nothing, but silence is costing the market dearly.
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Eamonn Prendergast
Chartered Financial Adviser at Palantir Financial Planning Ltd
Uncertainty is the growth killer and, right now, rumours of sweeping property tax reforms are paralysing the market. Rational owners simply won’t move unless they absolutely have to, especially if decades of house price gains could trigger punitive new tax bills. Smaller landlords are already being squeezed out, leaving room for large institutions, while families face rising rents and shrinking choice. Rachel Reeves should 100% confirm or deny these rumours. We’ve already seen how speculation around pensions unsettled savers and froze decision-making; the same is now happening in property. The Budget is fuelling the fire and clarity from the Treasury is urgently needed to restore confidence.
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Andrew Montlake
CEO at Coreco
What we do know is that any speculation coming up to a budget tends to cause one of two things: panic or inertia. In this case, the late timing of the budget is not helping, as there is more time for the rumour mill to get into full swing, and we have seen more people than usual opt for a wait-and-see approach.
In what looks to be a buyer's market at present, this could mean some miss an opportunity, especially if, as is often the case, the budget does not deliver any of the potential changes rumoured to have been considered.
The markets and people generally prefer certainty, so any early indication of changes would, of course, be more beneficial. However, it is important for the Chancellor to carefully consider a range of options before acting.
Hopefully, the property market will not be unduly affected again, as we need a combination of the home ownership and private rental sector to work healthily in union, and more importantly, to build more homes.
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Jack Tutton
Director at SJ Mortgages
The consistent rumours of an additional property tax for properties above £500,000 is doing the housing market no favours at all, it is causing potential buyers to think twice about buying along with dragging out purchases while people try to wait for the budget. The Chancellor could do a lot by denying these rumors however, the longer it goes on then the more concerned current and future buyers will become. If the new tax is introduced, it will have widespread impacts to both the housing and mortgage markets.
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Tony Redondo
Founder at Cosmos Currency Exchange
Reeves is in danger of killing the golden goose. For the second year in a row, Reeves is doing her utmost to foster uncertainty by considering taxing high-value family homes, potentially replacing stamp duty with a new levy on the sale of homes worth over £500,000. There are also reports that she's drawn up plans to end the Capital Gains Tax exemption for high-value primary residences, with a possible threshold around £1.5 million. Knight Frank revised their 2025 price growth forecast to 0% from +3% previously, citing the current mood of uncertainty. The speculation particularly affects London, responsible for over 22% of UK GDP, where more than half of homes (59%) are priced over £500,000.
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Rob Mansfield
Independent Financial Advisor at Rootes Wealth Management
The government should rip the plaster off and get the bad news out. We know that tax rises are coming as we haven't had the growth and spending keeps going up. It was a political mistake to allow the rumour mill we saw last year and they're repeating that error again. Why would you commit to buying a property if you feel the rug is about to be pulled out from under your feet? We need more Rachel from communications than Rachel from accounting now.
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Rohit Kohli
Director at The Mortgage Stop
Rachel Reeves looks scared of her own shadow. She’s sitting on decisions because she’s terrified of the reaction, but that fear is paralysing the housing market. The government has already been reckless by pushing the Budget to the very end of November, leaving weeks of uncertainty for rumours to swirl. We saw last year how damaging this vacuum can be - it crushes confidence, stalls investment and freezes buyers and sellers. If Reeves has changes in mind, she should have the courage to set them out now. Hiding in silence is choking growth.
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Kundan Bhaduri
Entrepreneur, Investor and Landlord at The Kushman Group
It would be funny if it wasn't so sad, but the tax rumour mill has achieved what Rachel Reeves probably intended without requiring actual policy implementation.

The market above £500k has essentially frozen as buyers refuse to commit capital when the Chancellor might unveil punitive council tax revaluations, annual property levies, or enhanced stamp duty rates targeting their exact price bracket.

This paralysis is bizarrely more effective than actual tax increases because it creates maximum disruption with zero legislative effort, allowing Labour to test market reactions before committing to specific policies.

The brutal reality is that this tax speculation serves Labour's political objectives perfectly, cooling down the market while generating downward price pressure without parliamentary votes or manifesto breaches. What a depravity this Labour government is.
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Steven Hargreaves
Mortgage and Protection Adviser at The Mortgage Co
I have a number of new enquiries every week, where a client is wanting to move independently of selling their existing property, much of this is down to the housing market slowing down, and a client deciding to rent out their existing property to facilitate a house move. My first question is to ask them if they are aware of the stamp duty implications, which invariably they arent, in nearly every case it stops the conversation dead once I discuss the cost of second tier stamp duty.
I am an experienced adviser and historically 20%-25% of my income has been generated by Buy to Let investors, in the last 2/3 years this is down to less than 5%, for a couple of reasons, the interest rates have a huge impact, in some cases the difference between an interest only mortgage and the rental income is much to small that a potential Buy to Let investor decides not to bother, once you add second tier stamp duty to the calculations, it has a tendency to kill the deal stone dead.
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Sally Asling
Director at ProFind Property Recruitment
Yes, the market is in a state of paralysis above £500K. I am a Property Industry Recruiter and my clients are reporting that the market is really quiet with very little happening. The main problem with the Budget falling so late this year is that it's crippling the market until the new year because even if the Budget is positive for the housing market (of which everyone is doubtful) it's too late in the year to ignite any activity in 2025. There is simply too much uncertaintly to stimulate activity. What will happen to CGT? What is this about a new Property Tax Levy? Both these questions alone are causing caution among consumers. Then of course we have affordability, which is really streched and there is low confidence in the jobs market. Business confidence is low in the private sector due to fear of potential tax increases, while the new Renters' Reform Bill is already affecting lndlords. The whole market is in flux. Reeves has crippled the market. Incompetence at its finest.