Sales of the UK's most expensive homes plummeted in October, according to new data, with affluent buyers appearing to be put off by the prospect of a so-called mansion tax in Labour's upcoming budget. Property website Rightmove said Monday that agreed sales of homes worth at least £2 million ($2.6 million) were down 13% compared with 12 months earlier, the largest fall recorded this year.

London

Sales of UK homes priced at £2 million or more declined by 13% year-on-year in October, marking the steepest drop in 2025, according to Rightmove. This downturn comes as speculation intensifies about the potential introduction of a mansion tax on high-value properties in the forthcoming UK budget.

The slowdown is most pronounced in London but is also evident across the broader market, with factors such as higher stamp duty, the cost of living crisis, and uncertainty over future taxes and interest rates contributing to widespread caution. Both buyers and sellers are hesitating as they await clarity from the upcoming budget and potential policy changes.

UK luxury home sales slump ahead of expected mansion tax

Now to the UK, where sales of UK homes worth at least £2 million plunged 13.13%, 13% in October year-on-year. It's the sharpest drop in 2025, this according to data from property website Rightmove. The moves and the numbers come as speculation builds, of course, about the introduction of a mansion tax, a so-called mansion tax, on high-value properties in next week's budget. Let's bring in Bloomberg's Kit Rees then for the details on this. So Kit, just put us into context. 13% drop in terms of the monthly numbers out of Rightmove. How significant, how much pain are we seeing at the top end of the housing market in the UK? Well, we're seeing quite a lot of pain to be honest. There's a lot of caution in the market and this is especially true in London, given in the capital there's a high amount of very expensive homes and it also adds to growing evidence of a sort of cooling. So our colleagues have previously reported as an example that one luxury apartment was sold at a 50% discount. Wow. So, yeah, there's a lot of pain, there's a lot of caution. So as we saw last week, it's very important for Chancellor Rachel Reeves to keep MPs on side and that's what we saw with the U-turn on the planned increase in income tax hikes. So it's politically more palatable to tax wealthier individuals. So this is what we're seeing with the mansion house tax that's been reported as one of the measures that she is considering. Also, another measure is a charge on wealthy individuals exiting the UK. So taken all together, this isn't surprising that there's a lot of pain at the top end of the market especially. But it's also been widespread and it's something that we've seen all year. But with a budget just next week, it's looking particularly sort of nervy. Okay, so the budget is a major factor in this story. And you talked about the broader market. This is not isolated just to the tippy top of the UK market. This is a broader phenomenon as well in terms of lower prices. Yes, definitely. So the Rightmove data also showed that there's been a broader slowdown. And it's something that we've seen all year. We had higher stamp duty charges which have hit buyers. They're dealing with a cost of living crisis which squeezes affordability. And of course, with the budget, there's lots of nerves over what taxes could be introduced, going to get higher taxes. So it's kind of keeping sellers, you know, they're not sure whether to sell now, sell later. Buyers also not really sure whether to, you know, go now or go later too. So overall, there's just a lot of caution. There's caution over interest rates as well. We don't know what's going to happen with the Bank of England. And interest rates are quite high in the UK compared with other places. So overall, it shows that there's a lot of caution, there's a lot of uncertainty and this is being played out in the UK housing market.

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Breakdown