Amidst A Year of Great Change, How’s the Wiltshire Property Market Holding Up?

This year has seen the UK housing market undergo the most deliberate change in a very long time. In pursuit of filling the hole created by the last government, Labour have been looking to change the way property is taxed. It’s a sound economic approach, what with land being limited, but the changes have still come as a shock to many.

Among the two headline changes made to date, another looks to be on the way with the Autumn Budget on 26 November 2025. All of these factors, those that have come to pass and those that haven’t, weigh on the housing market. So, how have Wiltshire and places within, like Swindon, fared?

A Big Year of Housing Market Adjustment in the UK

Coming into 2025, analysts on British property declared that it would likely be a buyers’ market this year. This means that competition for homes up for sale would lead to buyers having more leverage in negotiations, leading to more price drops from the asking figure. As it turns out, that’s mostly what we’ve seen so far.

Stamp duty changes came into effect in April. They cut the space from zero tax to some tax from a £250,000 ceiling to a £125,000 ceiling and brought in a new two per cent bracket to fill that gap. Tax on higher-priced properties didn’t budge. Also in April, councils were granted a new power of taxation.

Helping to greatly free up the seemingly limited housing stock of the UK, many councils levied an extra up to 100 per cent council tax on second homes. Even with it being a buyers’ market, per many analysts, August saw the third consecutive monthly rise, this time of around 0.3 per cent in the average house price.

Even so, all of these factors have encouraged more people in Wiltshire and beyond to sell. Some have encountered a stubborn selling market. For some looking to sell house fast in Swindon, online cash buying services have become more appealing. These services allow sellers are able to gain a free cash offer and money within as little as seven days, and they guarantee a sale. As we’ll see, Wiltshire and especially Swindon houses have enjoyed an increase in house price of late.

However, these changes to the market and what might come in November will have many looking to cash in. The government really should seek to adjust the unbalanced scale of property taxes, which only charge Band H homes – worth at least eight times that of Band A homes – three times as much. Few think the government has the minerals to do so.

Price Increases Year-to-Year in Wiltshire

As it turns out, Wiltshire is doing very well in terms of house price growth regionally and nominally, as is Swindon. Still, there is a slight caveat to this, depending on what figures you read. According to the ONS, average prices in Wiltshire are up 3.3 per cent in July 2025 from June 2024. That’s a bump of 1.8 per cent more than the region.

As for Swindon, where the average house price is £65,000 lower than the county average, prices saw a 2.2 per cent bump year-on-year, which is 0.7 per cent better than the regional average. However, from the 2022 peak, house sellers see Wiltshire prices as being two per cent down, but Swindon prices as being four per cent up.

Property prices are still on the rise in the county and across the country on average, but it’s easy to see why people who may sell are looking to do so quickly now. After all, it’s anyone’s guess how the next budget will change things.