I wonder if house prices will increase? Under the old system there was an incentive to keep the price just below a threshold, 249,999 for eg, now it will less off-putting to purchasers if the price goes over by 10k or so. We'll have to wait and see I suppose.
So-called "Stamp Duty", apart from being misleadingly named, is an iniquitous tax and should be abolished entirely. It should be called "property purchase tax" and there is no justification for it whatsoever. If the government wants a cut of the profit made on property transactions they should come clean and apply Capital Gains Tax on primary residences. If they are not prepared to do that this misleading and unfair tax should be abolished.