Economist:
A little-noticed change in Britain?s housing market spells trouble for everybody
5 August 2017
in the last decade, the average amount of stamp duty charged per residential transaction has risen by 30% in real terms (though recent changes have lightened the load slightly for some). The need to pay thousands of pounds upfront makes upping sticks harder. According to a recent paper from Christian Hilber of the London School of Economics and Teemu Lyytikäinen of the VATT Institute for Economic Research, stamp duty reduces the rate of home-moving by about a fifth. It partly explains why home-owners in Britain move home half as frequently as they do in America, where the equivalent tax is usually less onerous.
Related publications
‘Transfer Taxes and Household Mobility: Distortion on the Housing or Labor Market?’, Christian A.L. Hilber and Teemu Lyytikäinen, SERC Discussion Paper No.216, June 2017
http://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/textonly/SERC/publications/download/sercdp0216.pdf