65 per cent of the people buying a home in London in 2012-13 paid the 3 per cent rate of Stamp Duty or more. You can pay that rate on a one or two bedroom flat in the capital now.
But it would be a mistake to think that Stamp Duty is only an issue in London and its leafier suburbs. Just 200,000 of the 500,000 transactions subject to Stamp Duty in 2012-13 were in London and the South East. Family homes around the country are subject to punitive rates.
Imagine you bought a house in the West Midlands for £300,000 at the start of 2007. Not a mansion but just a normal family home in a nice neighbourhood like the one picture below.
You will have paid £9,000 in Stamp Duty on top of the price of the house.
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