The Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA) has recently published its latest annual statistics for Land Transaction Tax (LTT).

The statistical release covers the period from April 2022 to March 2023 and presents data by geographical area; including local authority, and constituency level data, and by transaction type.

At a national level, the main data highlights of the release, include:

• a total of 59,560 transactions for LTT
• £382.5 million tax due for sales and leases of property and land in Wales
• £287.4 million tax due for residential transactions, this included £92.0 million additional revenue raised from higher rates
• £95.1 million tax due for non-residential transactions

At a local authority level, the data highlight some variations for residential and non-residential transactions. For example, higher rate transactions, as a percentage of all residential transactions, varied from 16% in Torfaen and Flintshire to 32% in Gwynedd. Changes for these percentages against the previous year ranged from a 5 percentage point decrease for Gwynedd to a 3 percentage point increase for Monmouthshire.

There are multiple reasons why the higher rates of residential tax could be charged under LTT, including:

• the purchase of buy-to-let properties
• second homes or holiday homes
• bridging between two properties, and
• purchases by companies, such as social housing providers

For April 2022 to March 2023 data, we cannot provide a breakdown on the intent behind higher rate transactions. However, on 28 June 2023 we introduced a new question on the LTT return asking about the intent behind residential purchases at the higher rates of tax. We will assess the data over the coming months with the potential to publish this breakdown in future publications.

Adam Al-Nuaimi, Head of Data and Analysis for the WRA, said:

“Residential LTT revenues in the year to March were marginally higher than the previous year and considerably higher than in the three years prior to that. The marginal increase in revenues occurred despite lower numbers of transactions towards the end of the financial year, likely to have been influenced by wider economic conditions.

“Revenue from non-residential transactions was considerably lower in the year to March than in the previous year, though remained higher than in the three years prior to that. This is the primary reason for the fall in revenues for all transactions in the latest year.

“In the year to March, we have seen reduced activity for residential higher rates in some areas of Wales, particularly in some of the western or northern areas. Possible reasons for this could include the impact of wider economic conditions or second homes policies beginning to impact upon transactions.”

The WRA has produced an updated explainer on using local area statistics and when and why higher rates of LTT apply.