Overview
- New Hamptons analysis of Land Registry data shows flips fell to 10,570 in 2025, down from 21,520 in 2016 and equal to 1.5% of sales from 2.0% in 2024.
- Flipping means buying a home and reselling it within 12 months, and both the count and share of these deals are now the lowest since the early 2010s.
- Hamptons links the long slowdown to the 2016 second‑home stamp duty surcharge, a purchase tax that raises costs in England while Wales uses a similar land transaction tax.
- Returns have tightened as material and labor costs rose after the pandemic and southern house prices cooled, while the North East remains a hotspot led by Hartlepool, County Durham, Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Stockton-on-Tees.
- About 73.3% of flips still made a gross profit last year, yet thinner margins mean success now leans on low entry prices and strong local price growth.