The number of properties being flipped fell to its lowest level in more than a decade across England and Wales last year, findings suggest. 

Flipping a property means buying a home in need of renovation, doing it up and quickly selling it on with the aim of making a profit. 

According to the latest data from the estate agent Hamptons, just 2.3 per cent of homes sold between January and March 2025 were bought and resold within 12 months. 

This marked the lowest level for property flipping since 2013. 

Previously a tempting option for those with some spare cash, time and DIY know-how, it suggests quick property renovations are no longer as lucrative as they used to be. 

In the first quarter of 2025, 7,301 properties were flipped, according to Hamptons, well below the ten-year quarterly average of 10,000. 

How much money can you make from flipping? 

Average, gross profits on flipped properties jumped £6,000 year-on-year to £22,000 in the period, according to Hamptons. 

However, this was much less than the £38,000 property renovators made in early 2022, representing a 42 per cent drop in just three years. 

This is mainly due to a rise in costs eating away at investors' profits. The price of construction materials and hiring tradespeople has spiked in recent years, and the stamp duty paid when buying a property has also risen. 

While some property investors will remain undeterred this year, a temporary stamp duty holiday ended in April 2025. For most buyers, the threshold at which stamp duty starts being paid dropped from £250,000 to £125,000. 

An additional stamp duty surcharge also has to be stumped up on second or additional properties. Most homes being flipped for profit fall into this category. 

In 2024, Labour changed the rules so that second home purchases in England were subject to an additional 5 per cent stamp duty surcharge, an increase from the previous had been 3 per cent.

Someone buying a second home for £500,000 can now expect to pay £40,000 in stamp duty, up from £27,500 previously.

In its findings published in 2025, Hamptons calculated that the stamp duty regime was eroding as much as 21 per cent of the average gross profit on flipped properties, with bills for stamp duty exceeding renovation costs in many cases. 

Only around 66 per cent of flipped properties yielded a net profit in the first quarter of 2025, despite 80 per cent being sold for more than their purchase price, Hamptons said. 

In the early months of 2025, property investors were honing in on cheaper areas in the North of England, where homes can be snapped up below the stamp duty threshold of £125,000.

In Redcar and Cleveland, 7.6 per cent of properties sold in the first quarter of 2025 were flipped, representing the highest level in the country. This was followed by County Durham at 6.6 per cent and Hartlepool at 6.5 per cent. 

In contrast, London saw just 1.5 per cent of sales involving flipped homes, likely to be due to sky-high property prices in the capital putting off many would-be investors.  

Caroline Marshall-Roberts, founder of property investment company BuyAssociation, said this week that flipping property was 'still viable, but it’s definitely become more specialised'. 

She added: 'Previously, those with little experience in property investment could buy fixer-uppers and turn a decent profit with relatively minimal risk.

'Now, rising costs such as stamp duty are eating into those profits. When the average gross return from flipping is around £22,000, and stamp duty alone can swallow more than half of that, you have to be very strategic.

'The era of "buy cheap, do up, sell high" is much harder to come by. Labour and material costs can quickly erode margins, and even eliminate them entirely if you’re not careful.

'That said, flipping can still work. But it takes patience, and more importantly, real expertise.

Marshall-Roberts said that in some cases, buying a home, renovating it and keeping hold of it as a landlord made more financial sense.  

She added: 'In the current market, many investors are seeing stronger, more stable returns from long-term buy-and-hold strategies. 

'Rental demand is high in key regions, and steady capital growth can offer better value than a risky flip.'