Buying a detached house in the UK is cheaper than paying stamp duty in prime central London, analysis from Springbok Properties has found.

With recent changes to stamp duty, those at the top end of the market have been left considerably worse off.

Using data from the Land Registry, the fast sale agent looked at the vast difference between different segments of the market.

Three homes for the price of stamp duty

Research from Springbok shows that if you bought a detached house in Kensington and Chelsea, you would be facing a stamp duty bill of £318,000 on the typical house price of £3.38 million.

For the same amount, you could almost buy three detached homes in Northern Ireland, where they cost £108,400 each on average.

Properties are also far cheaper in Scotland (£266,300) and Wales (£248,300), although they are higher in England on a national level (£375,600).

Interestingly, there are 167 areas where stamp duty sums in prime central London exceed the average house price, with the cost sitting between the Isle of Wight (£319,510) and Hambleton (£316,909).

While this price is enough to get on the property ladder in the likes of Hambleton, Newport, Kettering, Forest of Dean, Manchester, Plymouth and more, it’s possible to even double up on bricks and mortar on the other end of the table.

In the Scottish Western Isles, Burnley and Blaenau Gwent in Wales, you could afford two homes at the average house price, with the likes of County Durham, East Ayrshire, Hyndburn, Blackpool and Stoke not far behind.

“Stamp duty continues to be an additional financial burden that many fail to properly account for when buying a house and it can catch many potential buyers out as a result,” Shepherd Ncube, founder and chief executive officer of Springbok Properties, says.

“The one silver lining for the average UK homebuyer is that they aren’t paying the astronomical sums required to purchase at the very top end of London’s property ladder.”

He adds: “The Government has certainly achieved in its objective to dampen the appetite of foreign buyers in London’s prime market by adjusting the stamp duty thresholds, but this seems to have had an impact across the board and you can see why.”