Stamp duty takings from the sales of UK homes have surged by more than £1.5 billion year-on-year as the property market has moved into recovery, official figures show.

The total Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) yield from sales of residential properties in 2013/14 was £6.45 billion, marking a 31% increase on a total of £4.90 billion in 2012/13, according to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) data.

Of the total revenue for 2013/14, 95% came from transactions taking place in England, with Scotland accounting for 3.3%, Wales 1.4% and 0.3% in Northern Ireland.

Residential stamp duty yield peaked at £6.68 billion in 2007/08 during the height of the property boom, and as the credit crunch set in takings dropped dramatically to £2.95 billion the following year.

Since then, the stamp duty yield from England has grown the most significantly, which is likely in part to be due to the distorting effects of London and the South East, the report said.

Of the £6.45 billion revenue collected in the last year, more than two-fifths (42%) of it was from London and one fifth (21%) came from property sales in the South East.

At £2.72 billion last year, the stamp duty yield coming from London has tripled compared with 2008/09, while in the South East and the East of England it has doubled over the same period.

According to the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), average London house prices topped half a million pounds for the first time in July, pushing the typical property value there into a higher stamp duty bracket.

The ONS figures also showed that across the country, a typical first-time buyer faces paying 13.5% more to get on the property ladder than they did a year ago, at £209,000. This is the steepest annual increase seen since 2005.

Sales of homes are free of stamp duty up to the value of £125,000 and attract a 1% tax above this level and up to £250,000.

But rising house prices as the housing market gathers pace mean that more purchasers face paying at higher rates. A stamp duty rate of 3% is applied to homes worth over £250,000 to £500,000, one of 4% is imposed on those valued at over £500,000 up to £1 million, one of 5% kicks in on those worth over £1 million to £2 million and one of 7% is applied beyond that point.

Two new residential stamp duty land tax bands were introduced in 2012/13. A new 7% rate came into effect for all residential transactions over £2 million, while for purchases of homes worth over £2 million by certain types of corporate body, a 15% rate was implemented.

In 2013/14, a total of £70 million of stamp duty revenue was collected at the 15% rate, which is unchanged from the previous year, while £1 billion was collected from sales of other residential properties worth more than £2 million, showing a 26% increase on the previous year.

Last week, Labour proposed introducing a mansion tax on homes worth £2 million-plus, a suggestion which has been criticised by estate agents as effectively being a tax on London and the South East.

Paula Higgins, chief executive of campaign group the HomeOwners Alliance, said: "These latest figures show just how wrong stamp duty is.

"It was a tax introduced to apply to the few. It is now a tax on families and first-time buyers buying homes to live in as they have to save thousands to pay this upfront tax.

"For some reason, the Government doesn't see any contradiction in their attempts to get people onto the property ladder and heavily taxing them as they clamber onto the first rung.

"These figures show they must be blinded by the sheer amount of money they are raking in. George Osborne is addicted to stamp duty and can't admit to the need for reform.

"If the Government was serious about helping first-time buyers, the stamp duty exemption threshold would always be above the average house price, so ordinary home buyers don't pay."