Autumn Budget 2026: what it could mean for the UK housing market 

By David Jabarri, CEO, at Nova Conveyancing

What is the Autumn Budget 2026, and when is it 

The Autumn Budget 2026 will be delivered by Chancellor John Healey on Wednesday 28 October 2026, in the House of Commons. Budget statements are typically delivered at around 12:30pm, straight after Prime Minister’s Questions, though an exact time has not yet been confirmed. It is the first Budget under Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who took office in July 2026. 

Two things are already known. Stamp duty and council tax reform have both been ruled out this year. Capital gains tax and inheritance tax reliefs remain open questions, alongside the outcome of a consultation on the mansion tax due to take effect from April 2028. 

Housing risks being treated as an afterthought in this Budget, overshadowed by the ongoing debate over capital gains tax and inheritance tax reliefs. With changes to stamp duty already ruled out, the real opportunity here is building the confidence buyers and sellers would actually notice. 

The real problem isn’t tax, it’s confidence 

The cost of moving has become prohibitive. So-called “market churn” data shows how big the problem already is: just 5% of sellers this year had owned their home for less than three years, the lowest share on record, down from 15% in 2006 (Land Registry data, analysed by Connells Group). People have simply stopped moving as often as they used to. 

Confidence, not just price, is what drives this market, and right now enough buyers are waiting to see what’s announced that the waiting itself has become part of the problem. What would genuinely help is a credible sense of stability from government, fewer shocks rather than more over the next 12 months, not another debate about a tax cut nobody expects to happen. 

Don’t lose momentum on the Home Buying and Selling Reform 

The Home Buying and Selling Reform was broadly welcomed when the consultation results came back this year. There is a downward spiral building in the housing market right now: weakening buyer sentiment and the prospect of falling house prices create a self-reinforcing slowdown in transaction volumes. Buyers delay purchases if they believe prices will fall further, which lengthens marketing periods, increases price-reduction negotiations, and dampens transaction volumes further still. 

The only way to instil confidence in this market is by showing buyers and sellers that the reform most of us welcomed is actually being finished, not just announced. The consultation on this had strong support, most people backed mandatory upfront property information andthe move to binding contracts, so the government already has the mandate to act. It just needs to do so now.