In the primary three months of 2025, flipped properties (houses purchased and re-sold inside a 12 months) accounted for 2.3% of all transactions throughout England and Wales, the lowest share since first quarter 2013.
This is based on evaluation by Hamptons of Land Registry knowledge. The analysis additionally reveals there have been 7,301 flipped houses offered throughout England and Wales in Q1 2025, with numbers now working 27% under the 10-year common of 10,000 per quarter.
The common gross revenue (the distinction between sale and buy worth) earned on a flipped property in England and Wales was £22,000 within the first quarter of this 12 months.
(*12*) this figure has risen by £6,000 in comparison with properties offered final 12 months, slower home worth progress and the shift in direction of flipping cheaper houses have meant that gross income have nearly halved since they final peaked at £38,000 in 2022 and stay decrease than they have been a decade in the past.
In share phrases, the typical gross revenue made by an investor who flips a house has declined from 17% in Q1 2015 to 10% in Q1 2025, primarily as a consequence of weaker home worth progress.
Lower returns, predominantly as a consequence of greater stamp obligation prices, have diminished the proportion of worthwhile flipped properties. Of all of the houses flipped throughout England and Wales in the course of the first quarter of this 12 months, 80% have been offered for greater than they have been purchased for; nevertheless, simply 66% made a revenue on resale after paying stamp obligation. However, greater materials and labour prices, alongside slower home worth progress, have additionally weighed on funding urge for food.
Regional components
Hamptons means that flipping more and more solely stacks up within the Midlands and North of England, the place property costs and, subsequently, stamp obligation prices are decrease.
In the primary quarter of this 12 months, 61% of flipped properties have been within the Midlands, North of England or Wales, up from 50% a decade in the past (earlier than the stamp obligation surcharge on second houses was first launched).
The North East, the most cost effective area within the nation, stays the hotspot for flipping. Here, 4.7% of all houses offered in Q1 2025 had been purchased inside the earlier 12 months, greater than double the nationwide common.
Commenting on the info, Hamtons head of analysis Aneisha Beveridge stated:
“The second residence stamp obligation surcharge was launched to tilt the market in direction of first-time patrons on the expense of landlords, one thing that it has efficiently executed. However, it has additionally multiplied the prices for these people who find themselves refurbishing houses to a degree that’s more and more unviable.
“These are sometimes empty houses which want plenty of love, and are sometimes tasks which most first-time patrons and movers have shied away from.”
She added: “These rising upfront prices have pushed traders additional North, the place properties can nonetheless be purchased with out paying any stamp obligation. It’s additionally the place extra home worth progress has been concentrated over the previous couple of years.
“(*12*) the returns aren’t as excessive as with houses within the South in money phrases, greater yields and decrease tax payments proceed to make the North the homeland of flipping.”
