The average Stamp Duty Land Tax bill has more than halved since the Chancellor introduced his reforms in December.

The average now paid by buyers has fallen from £8,192 to £3,653, says a study by the Post Office and the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

However, in London, buyers are paying virtually the same amount as before.

They are paying an average of £14,920 – a drop of just 0.2% – reflecting the other side of George Osborne’s reforms, which brought in higher rates on high value properties.

As a reminder of those changes:

The old ‘slab’ system:

0% on properties up to £125,000

1% on properties from £125,001 to £250,000

3% on values between £250,001 and £500,000

4% on properties between £500,001 and £1m

5% on properties between £1m and £2m

7% on properties above £2m.

The current system:

No SDLT payable at all on properties up to £125,000

Then payable at 2% on the portion up to £250,000

Payable at 5% on the portion up to £925,000

Payable at 10% on the portion up to £1.5m

Then payable at 12% on the portion over that amount.