Berkeley calls for stamp duty to be capped at 3% on all new UK homes
Key Points
- Berkeley Group has called for stamp duty to be capped at 3% on all new homes and scrapped for first-time buyers.
- Berkeley argues the change would be fiscally neutral or better due to higher transaction volumes and homebuilding.
- The developer reported pre-tax profit of £451.4m for the year to 30 April 2026, down 15%, with net cash of £363m.
- Berkeley says London is building less than 10% of its government-set annual housing target.
Berkeley Group has called on the government to cap stamp duty at 3% on all new homes and scrap it altogether for first-time buyers, in an unusually direct intervention in tax policy delivered alongside its annual results.
The London-focused developer said stamp duty land tax should be reduced to a maximum of 3% on every new-build home, with the surcharges layered on over the past decade removed entirely.
It argued the changes would be “fiscally neutral or better”, on the basis that greater transactional activity and additional homebuilding would generate more revenue through corporation tax, which stands at 29% on residential developers’ profits, and through payroll taxes across the supply chain.
Berkeley said more than ten years of continual stamp duty increases and new surcharges, introduced when interest rates sat at 0.25%, had curtailed the early investment needed to bring forward brownfield sites since rates began to normalise at the end of 2022.
It is that early investment, the company said, that gives developers the certainty to absorb the heavy upfront costs of regeneration schemes.
The call formed part of a broader set of demands. Berkeley said London is now delivering less than 10% of its annual new homes target set by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, with no prospect of material improvement without further intervention.
The company said that if its proposed measures on tax, planning and regulation were adopted, London could meet its housing targets, tax revenues would grow and national GDP would rise by 1%.
Executive Chair Rob Perrins said the government had “done an excellent job in restoring the fundamentals of housing policy” but warned that further taxes and tariffs, including the incoming Building Safety Levy, were counter-productive in the current climate.
Berkeley confirmed it has stopped acquiring new land except through joint ventures while present tax and regulatory conditions prevail.
The commentary comes as Berkeley reported pre-tax profit of £451.4 million for the year to 30 April, down 15% on the prior year, with net cash rising to £363 million and net asset value per share up 9% to £39.17 after £233 million of share buybacks.
Analysts noted the rarity of a listed company lobbying so openly on tax.
Oli Creasey, Head of Property Research at Quilter Cheviot, said Berkeley’s customers are far more exposed to stamp duty than those of any other listed builder, but questioned whether any politician would take tax advice from the companies meant to be paying it.
