Buyer guide
Stamp duty in 2026: what you actually pay
Stamp Duty Land Tax is one of the largest upfront costs of buying in England and Northern Ireland. The temporary pandemic thresholds ended on 1 April 2025, so the figures below are the current rates. Knowing them lets you budget properly and factor the cost into your offer rather than being caught short at completion.
The current rates
For someone buying a single main residence, you pay nothing on the first 125,000 pounds, then 2 percent on the slice from 125,001 to 250,000, 5 percent from 250,001 to 925,000, 10 percent from 925,001 to 1.5 million, and 12 percent on anything above 1.5 million pounds. The tax is tiered, which is the part people most often get wrong. Each rate applies only to the portion of the price that falls within that band, not to the whole price, so there is no cliff edge where one extra pound costs you thousands.
A worked example
On a 400,000 pound home bought as a main residence, you pay 0 percent on the first 125,000, then 2 percent on the next 125,000, which is 2,500 pounds, and then 5 percent on the remaining 150,000, which is 7,500 pounds. The total bill is 10,000 pounds. Working it out band by band like this is the only reliable way to get the right figure, and it shows why a home priced just over a threshold is rarely the disaster buyers fear, because only the slice above the threshold is taxed at the higher rate.
First-time buyer relief
If you are buying your first home and the price is 500,000 pounds or less, you pay nothing on the first 300,000 and 5 percent on the portion from 300,001 to 500,000. Above a price of 500,000 pounds the relief disappears entirely and the standard rates apply to the whole purchase. You only count as a first-time buyer if you have never owned a residential property anywhere in the world, including by inheritance, and for a joint purchase every buyer must qualify, so one previous owner removes the relief for both.
The additional property surcharge
If you are buying a second home or a buy-to-let while already owning another residential property, a 5 percent surcharge applies on top of the standard rates across every band. On a 300,000 pound second home that adds 15,000 pounds to the bill, which is a substantial sum that catches out buyers who budgeted only for the standard rates. The surcharge can sometimes be reclaimed if you were replacing your main residence and you sell the old one within the time limit set by HMRC, so keep that in mind if the purchases overlap.
Scotland and Wales are different
Stamp duty applies in England and Northern Ireland only. Scotland uses Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales uses Land Transaction Tax, each with its own bands, thresholds, and reliefs that do not match the England figures. If you are buying in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff, or Swansea, the numbers above simply do not apply, and you should check the relevant national rates before you budget. It is a common and expensive mistake to assume the England rules apply across the whole of the UK when they do not.
When and how you pay
Stamp duty is due within 14 days of completion. In practice your solicitor submits the return and pays HMRC on your behalf on completion day, using funds you have transferred to them beforehand. It is payable in cash and cannot be added to most mortgages, so it has to be sitting in your budget alongside your deposit, legal fees, and survey. Treating it as part of your core cash requirement, rather than an afterthought, prevents an unpleasant gap appearing right at the end of the purchase.
Work it into your offer
Because stamp duty is a fixed cost driven entirely by the price you pay, it is worth modelling before you offer, not after. Run your likely offer price, and the top of your negotiation range, through the calculator so you know the full cash cost of each. On larger purchases the difference between two offer levels can shift the tax bill by thousands, which is useful context when you decide how hard to push. The stamp duty calculator gives you the exact figure for any price in seconds.
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