The big talking point this week was tax rather than rates: a cross-party group of MPs and the property portal Rightmove both put stamp duty firmly back on the table, arguing it's holding first-time buyers back. Alongside that, fresh house price figures point to a market that's steady and edging gently upwards. Here's what's worth knowing.
🏛️ Pressure grows to reform stamp duty for first-time buyers Proposals
Stamp duty was the story of the week. The House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, a cross-party group of MPs, published a report calling on the government to consult on reforming Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) as part of a wider push to help more people onto the housing ladder. The committee stopped short of dictating a single answer, but asked ministers to launch a formal consultation before the end of 2026 looking at options from a revenue-neutral replacement tax, to lower rates, to redrawing the bands so they track local house prices more fairly.
Separately, Rightmove renewed its own call to scrap stamp duty for first-time buyers on both new-build and existing homes, and to move to a system that reflects big regional differences in prices rather than applying the same thresholds everywhere. Rightmove's figures underline why: first-time buyers paid an estimated £408 million in stamp duty in the year to March 2026, up from £101 million the year before, an average of roughly £4,618 more per buyer. That jump largely reflects the first-time buyer relief threshold dropping back to £300,000 from April 2025.
What it means for you: this is a call for change, not a change in the rules, nothing about what you'd actually pay has moved, and any reform would follow a consultation and a future Budget. For now the current rates and reliefs still apply, so if you're buying it's worth knowing exactly what your bill would be. Our stamp duty calculator works it out for your price and situation, and if you're buying an additional property the second-home surcharge guide explains the extra. We'll flag it here the moment anything is confirmed.
🏠 House prices nudged up in June, and Halifax has a new name
The month's other big housing release came from the lender index that, from this month, is changing its name from the Halifax House Price Index to the Lloyds House Price Index (the methodology stays the same, it already used both banks' lending data). On its numbers, house prices rose 0.2% in June, the first monthly increase in four months, nudging the annual growth rate up to 0.6% and leaving the typical UK home at around £299,330.
It's a noticeably gentler picture than the 2.2% annual growth Nationwide reported last week, the two indices use different samples and methods, so they rarely match exactly, but both point the same way: a market that's steady and edging up rather than surging or sliding. Encouragingly for those just starting out, first-time buyer prices grew a touch faster, up 0.8% over the year to an average of about £240,433, which the index took as a sign that demand from new buyers is holding up.
What it means for you: flat-to-gently-rising prices are, on balance, good news if you're buying, there's less risk of overpaying into a falling market, and more scope to negotiate than the headlines might suggest. As ever, the fundamentals matter more than the index: your deposit, your budget and a rate that fits. Our first-time buyer guide and the repayment calculator are good places to start.
🧾 Inheritance tax basics: what homeowners actually need to know
Last week's homeowner note was about making a will. The natural follow-on is the tax that sits behind it, inheritance tax (IHT). It has a reputation as something that only affects the very wealthy, but because house prices have risen so much while the thresholds have stayed put, more ordinary homeowning families are quietly being drawn into it. Here's the plain-English version of how it works.
IHT is a tax on the estate (the property, savings and possessions) someone leaves when they die. The key numbers:
- The nil-rate band is £325,000. There's normally no inheritance tax on the first £325,000 of an estate. Anything above the tax-free amount is generally taxed at 40%.
- There's an extra allowance for your home. The residence nil-rate band adds up to a further £175,000 when you leave your main home to your children or grandchildren, taking a single person's tax-free total to as much as £500,000.
- Married couples and civil partners can combine allowances. Anything you leave to a spouse or civil partner is normally IHT-free, and unused allowances pass to the survivor, so a couple can potentially pass on up to £1 million tax-free.
- The thresholds are frozen. These allowances have been held at the same level for years and are set to stay frozen for several more, so as property values rise, more estates gradually cross the line, an effect often called “fiscal drag”.
The catch for homeowners is that most of the value is usually tied up in the house, not in cash, yet any IHT bill generally has to be dealt with before the family can access the estate. That can force a rushed sale at a difficult time.
Where DS Financial fits, and where it doesn't: inheritance tax planning and wills are legal and tax matters, not mortgage or financial advice, so for the planning itself you'll want a solicitor, accountant or qualified estate planner. What Debbie at DS Financial can help with is the piece that sits alongside it, making sure any life cover is the right amount and written in trust, so that if the worst happens a payout can reach your family quickly and, in the right set-up, help meet a tax bill without selling the home in a hurry. If you'd like that side sense-checked, just drop her a line. Our guides to writing life insurance in trust, protecting your mortgage and family and inheriting a property with a mortgage explain how these pieces connect. (Inheritance tax and estate planning sit outside mortgage advice, speak to a solicitor, accountant or estate planner for those, and figures here are general information, not personal tax advice.)
That's your week. If anything here raises a question about your own situation, just drop us a line, or have a no-pressure chat with Debbie at DS Financial.
General information, not financial, tax or legal advice. Figures correct at the time of writing (11 July 2026). Stamp duty reform is a proposal under discussion, not a change in the rules. Inheritance tax and estate planning are matters outside mortgage advice, speak to a solicitor, accountant or estate planner.
Sources: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee (UK Parliament), Rightmove, stamp duty reform, Lloyds (formerly Halifax) House Price Index, June 2026, GOV.UK, Inheritance Tax.