Mansion tax U-turn spares almost one in 10 London homes from potential £1.5m threshold

Just 1.5% of homes nationally currently exceed the £2m threshold

Yopa's research shows that, across England, just 11,848 of the 792,456 homes currently listed for sale have an asking price of £2m or more, accounting for only 1.5% of all available stock.

However, had the threshold been lowered to £1.5m, this figure would have climbed to 22,092 homes, equivalent to 2.8% of all properties currently on the market. 

This would have brought a further 10,244 properties within the potential scope of the surcharge, representing an 86% increase in the number of homes affected based on current asking prices. 

While this would still have represented a relatively small proportion of the national housing market, the impact would have been far more concentrated in certain regions, particularly London. 

Almost one in 10 London homes spared from proposed lower threshold

Of the 11,848 homes currently listed for sale across England at £2m or more, some 6,963 are located in London, accounting for 59% of the national total. 

At the existing £2m threshold, these properties represent 5.8% of all homes currently available for sale in the capital. 

However, had the Government lowered the threshold to £1.5m, the number of London properties potentially affected would have risen to 11,316. 

This equates to 9.4% of all homes currently listed for sale in London, meaning almost one in every 10 properties available to buyers in the capital would have fallen within the potential scope of the mansion tax. 

The decision not to proceed with the lower threshold therefore avoids bringing a further 4,353 London homes into the potential tax bracket, based on current asking prices. 

The South East would have seen the next highest level of exposure, with 5,025 homes listed at £1.5m or more, accounting for 3.4% of available stock. 

This is followed by the South West, where 1.7% of homes currently listed exceed the previously proposed threshold, and the East of England at 1.4%. 

Verona Frankish, CEO of Yopa, commented:

“On the face of it, the mansion tax is a measure that will affect a relatively small proportion of homeowners across England, but our research demonstrates just how much wider its reach could have been had the Government decided to lower the threshold to £1.5m. 

This is particularly true in London, where almost one in every 10 homes currently on the market would have fallen within the scope of the tax under the lower threshold, so the decision to rule out such an expansion will come as welcome news to many homeowners and prospective buyers across the capital. 

The concern has always been that £1.5m doesn't necessarily buy you a mansion in London. In many parts of the capital, this is the price of a perfectly ordinary family home, and lowering the threshold would have risked unfairly penalising homeowners who are property wealthy on paper, but aren't necessarily enjoying the lifestyle or disposable income that the term 'mansion tax' implies. 

While the existing £2m threshold will still affect a notable proportion of London's higher-value homes, retaining it avoids drawing a far broader range of households into the tax net simply because of where they live.” 

Data tables and sources

*Yopa analysed current available residential property listings across England, identifying the number and proportion marketed at £2m or more and £1.5m or more.

Source: Rightmove (06/10/26)

View the full data tables and sources online here.