November 2025 Premium Property Market Update
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of my UK premium property market update. This month I'm reviewing November activity levels for properties above £750,000, along with the year-to-date statistics and how the market performed in the final few weeks before the much anticipated Autumn Budget.
The much later than usual Autumn Budget took place on 26th November and after all the controversy of recent months surrounding potential tax reform, wrongly paid stamp duty and failure to obtain the correct licence for renting out a home, you would surely think there couldn’t be anything else that could possibly go wrong.
Enter the OBR!
Following months of speculation, it was rather fitting that details of The Budget were leaked by the OBR an hour before Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her statement.
In what became an unprecedented breach, the fiscal watchdog inadvertently revealed additional property taxes that would reshape parts of the UK housing market.
Here's what the second Budget since Labour came to power means for the premium property market moving forward.
‘Mansion Tax’
In what was a widely expected move, homes worth more than £2 million in 2026 will be subject to an annual surcharge from April 2028, officially termed the High Value Council Tax Surcharge.
The charge starts at £2,500 for properties over £2 million, rising to £7,500 for properties over £5 million, with the tax payable by the owner rather than the occupier.
HM Treasury expects fewer than 1% of properties in England to be above the £2 million threshold and Knight Frank reports there are currently 150,000 properties worth in excess of £2 million in England and Wales, but estimates this will rise to 180,000 by 2028.
Data from Rightmove shows that less than 0.5% of all home sales agreed this year have been for properties with an asking price over £2 million, and around 1% of homes for sale are priced above this threshold.
The chart below from Nationwide also highlights that the surcharge will apply to less than 1% of properties in England and they believe the changes to property taxes are unlikely to have a significant impact on the housing market.
Pre-Budget Anxiety
Panic started to really set in for homeowners throughout the country when Rachel Reeves left open the idea of higher property taxes at the Labour party conference on 29th September.
In the months leading up to The Budget, rumours circulated about potential changes to property taxes. From stamp duty reforms to council tax overhauls and even a possible mansion tax, the uncertainty left many would-be movers, especially in the premium market wondering what it could mean for their finances.
In a study of over 10,000 people who were either actively in the process of moving home or considering moving, 17% said they had paused their plans due to uncertainty about changes to property taxes, according to Rightmove.
61% of those surveyed said they were aware of rumoured property tax changes and 79% of this group said they were concerned about them.
Unsurprisingly, those aged 55 and over were most likely to be concerned (81%), given the majority of rumoured tax reforms were targeted at homes at the higher end of the market.
A Savills client survey from September highlighted that buyers had become more cautious about committing, especially in the short term, for obvious reasons.
Unsurprisingly, this was exacerbated among discretionary investor and second home markets, but commitment from needs-based buyers looking to upsize or relocate appeared stronger, particularly in the longer term.
Sales agreed for homes worth more than £2 million were already down 13% year on year according to Rightmove, whilst Zoopla reported a drop in buyer demand, sales agreed and new listings above £500,000, suggesting the higher end of the market had already started reacting to potential changes ahead of The Budget.
Relief for the £500k+ Market
The widely-speculated tax on homes over £500,000 has been avoided and should provide a boost to activity in this price sector, which accounts for approximately 25% of the market, following a drop in activity from both buyers and sellers in recent months according to both Rightmove and Zoopla.
Rightmove had reported homes between £500,000 and £2 million had seen sales agreed drop by 8% in the run up to The Budget, but Zoopla believe the confirmation that there will be no new annual tax on properties valued above £500,000 and the removal of uncertainty should bring relief to the owners of roughly 210,000 properties currently on the market above £500,000 as they expect buyer demand to strengthen as we head into 2026.
Whilst stock levels are still higher than they have been in recent years, they are levelling out with the number of properties for sale at their lowest level since March, suggesting we may have hit a peak for stock levels.
Unsurprisingly, given the uncertainty surrounding the Budget, particularly with all the talk around potential stamp duty reform and mansion tax, all tracked metrics declined in November, month-on-month, year-on-year, and against the 2020-2025 November average.
New listings, sellers returning to market, price reductions, sales agreed, withdrawals and fall-throughs all recorded lower figures.
While the decrease in new sellers and sales agreed was anticipated as movers awaited Budget clarity, the lower levels of withdrawals, price reductions and fall-throughs suggest the market adopted a cautious 'wait and see' approach rather than panic ahead of The Budget.
Buyers and sellers were pausing rather than abandoning their moving plans altogether.
Year-to-date, new listings, sellers returning to market and sales agreed are still both up year-on-year and against the 2020-2025 average, demonstrating the market has performed strongly in 2025 despite nearly a third of the year being overshadowed by speculation about tax reforms ahead of The Budget.
However, the market still has its challenges with price reductions, withdrawals and fall-throughs all up year-on-year and versus 2020-2025 average, highlighting just how important it is for those wanting to move home to have realistic expectations and listen to the expert advice from estate agents if they want to make a move in 2026.
Opening The Gates To More Listings
Following The Budget, OnTheMarket released a special edition of their Property Sentiment Index to gauge the impact of the long-awaited announcement and provide an early indicator of the market outlook ahead.
Expectations of the impact to the market are mixed with 34% expecting the overall Budget to have a negative impact, 16% have a positive outlook and 30% believe the announcement will have no effect on the property market.
Policy-specific measures such as the ‘Mansion Tax’ have largely been seen as neutral, with 66% reporting it will have no impact on their buying or selling plans and only 2% stated it as a specific reason for cancelling their moving plans.
The survey shows that buyers and sellers have been largely undeterred by the policies announced with over half already making the decision to press ahead and even accelerate their plans in the 10 days following The Budget.
50% of those surveyed have said the outcome of The Budget has had no impact on their moving plans, despite previous concerns, while 6% have actually accelerated their plans following the announcements.
Of the remaining 44% of that had been planning a move, only 15% reported either delaying or cancelling following The Budget and the final 20% are yet to decide.
The report from OnTheMarket gives a bright outlook for a post-budget bounceback and data from Zoopla highlights there are plenty of consumers watching the market, perhaps ready to make their move if they can achieve the right price for their property or find their dream home.
These maybe movers present a great opportunity to create your own market and start 2026 with a bang, so with that in mind, I’m going to recommend my dream home/price strategy to unearth those 2 in 5 consumers who are either watching or in the market to move home in the near future.
This strategy can be used in direct mail, email or social media and all methods of communication have been proven to drive positive results.
One agent has generated 30 potential seller leads by implementing the dream price strategy on TikTok and it cost them absolutely nothing to achieve!
If you want to see examples of these campaigns in action, feel free to send me a message and I will share them with you.
Thank you for reading my latest update and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on the next edition hitting your inbox in January, where I will be reviewing the 2025 premium property market.
Merry Christmas!
Simon Gates - Opening The Gates
P.S. Have a watch of my appearance on Spilling The Tea with Laila Safaee to find out more about my career, from starting in agency, creating a podcast, launching a business and loads more about the UK property market.
P.P.S. I just celebrated three years since the launch of my Facebook group for the estate agency community, so make sure to join it if you haven’t already for lots of great content.
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