The proportion of property sales over the £250,000 threshold has climbed from just 5 per cent to 26 per cent during the past decade.
Buyers pay a stamp duty rate of 3 per cent on properties valued between £250,000 and £500,000 and a rate of 4 cent on properties above £500,000. A new rate of 5 per cent on properties worth more than £1 million is being introduced next month.
Melanie Bien, of mortgage brokers Private Finance, said: “Tens of thousands more home owners have been forced to pay stamp duty because the government has failed to link thresholds to soaring house prices. These findings will underline calls for a root and branch reform of the controversial tax, replacing the slab system with a much fairer tiered model.”

Melanie Bien, of mortgage brokers Private Finance, said: “Tens of thousands more home owners have been forced to pay stamp duty because the government has failed to link thresholds to soaring house prices.

So what she's saying is that the boom in house prices was nothing to do with mortgage lenders giving people ridiculously massive mortgages without checking whether they could afford them or not?