London: 42% of stamp duty 15% of transactions

Agents and homeowners who complain that London is clobbered too heavily by current property taxes will have some power to their elbow today thanks to figures produced by the Nationwide.

It says London contributed around 42 per cent of the total stamp duty paid on residential properties in 2013/14 even though it only accounted for around 15 per cent of house purchase transactions across the country.

This largely reflects the substantial - and, says the Nationwide, growing - gap between house prices in the capital and elsewhere. The building society's latest price index shows that the typical London home now costs more than twice the UK average.

By contrast the north west of England, where the price of a typical house is well below the national average, accounted for three per cent of the total stamp duty paid, markedly less than its 10 per cent share of property transactions according to Robert Gardner, the Nationwide's chief economist.

Meanwhile the society's index shows that growth in house prices is starting to moderate.

Prices increased by just 0.1 per cent in July, the smallest rise since April 2013. That compares with a 1.0 per cent rise in June. The average UK house price is now £188,949.

A similar slowdown in prices was noted earlier this week by the Land Registry, which said that house prices fell in seven out of 10 regions of England and Wales during July.