The Chancellor Rachael Reeves made the unusual move of giving a pre-budget speech on 4 November. This was widely speculated as a tactic to get us ready for imminent rises in income tax, which are expected to be announced in the Autumn Budget on 26 November 2025.
But what else might we expect the Chancellor to include in the budget? There have been rumours of changes that will affect homeowners and homebuyers, so how they might these affect you if you’re looking to buy or sell your home?
Abolishing Stamp Duty Land Tax
Getting rid of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) would be a welcome change for homebuyers. The plan is that SDLT would be replaced with a national property tax on homes above a certain value (speculatively, £500,000).
And this new tax would be paid by the seller, rather than the buyer.
Rates start at 0.54% for homes valued at £500,000 and rise to 0.81% for properties worth more than £1 million. The national property tax is calculated as an annual charge, and sellers would pay it in a lump sum when they move. The rates take into account the number of years you’ve lived in the house, so the longer you’ve lived there the more you pay.
The new tax will only apply to homes on which stamp duty hasn’t already been paid. So if you paid stamp duty when you bought your home, you won’t be taxed again by national property tax when you come to sell it.
Reforming council tax
The current council tax bands were set in 1991 and are now generally considered to be outdated.
With that in mind, there are calls to reform the council tax system, which was based on the value of houses 30 years ago. A new local property tax could replace council tax entirely, and the new tax would be based on the property’s current value.
Another idea floating around is that the Chancellor will may announce new council tax bands at the top end of the scale, so that people in more expensive houses pay more council tax.
Introducing a mansion tax
You may have heard about a so-called mansion tax in the press, but the details of what it may look like are unclear.
It could be the introduction of Capital Gains Tax on the sale of high-value homes, or it could be an annual charge on those homes. Or it could be both.
Currently, no Capital Gains Tax is payable when you sell your primary residence, regardless of its sale value. The proposal would introduce CGT on high-value homes, which means that if you sell your home, you have to pay a proportion of the sale proceeds in tax.
What constitutes a ‘high-value’ home isn’t yet determined. It could be £500,000 or more (which wouldn’t buy you a mansion in Bristol!), or it could be a much higher threshold of £1.5 million.
The annual charge is rumoured to be a charge of 1% on the value of homes worth over £2 million.
National insurance on rental income
At the moment, the income landlords receive from rent is taxable as income, but it is not subject to National Insurance contributions. The Autumn Budget may well change that.
This would be a fairly easy win for the government, as landlords will soon have to declare rental income on a quarterly basis when Making Tax Digital comes into force in 2026 / 2027. The new digital system will make it easier for HMRC to collect the National Insurance contributions.
Inheritance tax: gifts towards homeownership could be taxable
This change is fairly nuanced, but it’s worth bearing in mind if you’re thinking about giving or receiving some financial help from family to buy your first or next home.
At the moment there is a taper system in place for inheritance tax. That means that the more time passes after the giver makes a gift, the less inheritance tax there is to pay. It’s a sliding scale. If the giver lives 7 years after making the gift, then no inheritance tax is payable on the gift.
The Autumn Budget may get rid of the taper system. So inheritance tax (currently at 40%) will be payable at a flat rate, unless the giver survives for 7 years after making the gift. There are also rumours that the ‘7-year’ rule may be increased to a 10-year rule instead.
This may be relevant for first-time buyers, or buyers looking to upsize. Most buyers have some financial help gifted to them from family members. The proportion of the deposit that was gifted, may now be subject to inheritance tax at 40% if the giver dies within 7 years of the date of the gift (or 10 years if that changes).
Budget day: 26 November 2025
At the moment this is all rumour and speculation. We’ll await the Chancellor’s decisions in the Autumn Budget, unveiled on 26 November 2025. However, it seems clear that changes are coming to the property sector, which aim to bring it up to date, and will hopefully help more people to buy a home.