Britons moving home less frequently, latest research reveals

Published on 4th July 2025, 7:07am

While new research shows the average Brit moves six times during the course of their lifetime, this figures is a 25% drop compared to the eight times recorded by Zoopla seven years ago.

Dave Sayce (pictured), co-founder of Compare My Move, reveals that his firm quizzed 2,000 home movers discovering that more than a quarter of them (29%) had moved two to three times, almost a third (32%) move four to six times and 15% move seven to nine times. It also found that 7% move 10-12 times and 7% move more than 12 times.

Downsizing accounts for 18% of their moves, followed by upsizing at 16% and lifestyle changes at 15%. Work-related moves represent just 3% of relocations.

Decline in numbers moving

The data also highlights the decline in the number of times the average person moves home in their lifetime. Separate data from Zoopla shows property move rates peaked during the Lawson Boom of the late 1980s, when Britons moved home every 8.63 years (1988).

They then rose dramatically in 2009 following the financial crash when the average person moved every 25.89 years. By 2017, the portal found the average had come back down to 22.7 years.

Stamp Duty rises

The economy is a key driver of the trend, as is affordability, but so is the rising cost of moving, which is mostly down to increases in Stamp Duty.

In 1998, the average house price was £61,026, for which buyers paid £610 Stamp Duty. In 2008, the average house price was £176,883 and the Stamp Duty was £1769. The current average house price is now £286,327, and the Stamp Duty on it is £4,316, which is a 700% increase from its 1998 level (Source: Land Registry).

< Return to News archive