UK Stamp Duty in 2026: What Buyers Actually Pay After the April 2025 Changes

On 1 April 2025 the temporary stamp duty discount ended and the nil-rate band in England and Northern Ireland dropped from £250,000 back to £125,000 — and on 31 October 2024 the additional-dwelling surcharge had already jumped from 3% to 5%. For a £350,000 main-home purchase in England that means a stamp-duty bill of £7,500 (up from £2,500 under the temporary regime); for a £350,000 second home, £25,000 (up from £18,000 under the pre-2022 baseline). This guide is the full 2026 stamp-duty picture across all three UK regimes, with worked examples by price band and verified citations to HMRC, Revenue Scotland and the Welsh Government.

UK stamp duty changed twice in six months. On 31 October 2024 the Autumn Budget raised the additional-dwelling surcharge in England and Northern Ireland from 3% to 5%. Five months later, on 1 April 2025, the temporary nil-rate band introduced in September 2022 expired and the threshold reverted from £250,000 to £125,000. Scotland's Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) had already moved from 6% to 8% on 5 December 2024. Wales overhauled its higher-rates table in December 2024 too.

Net effect: nearly every UK buyer pays more stamp duty in 2026 than they did in 2024, and second-home buyers pay materially more. The figures below are the rates in force as of May 2026, with worked examples at the prices most buyers actually transact at.

The three UK regimes at a glance

Three different rates, three different thresholds, three different collectors. Whoever your conveyancer is, stamp duty is calculated for the jurisdiction where the property sits, not where you live.

England and Northern Ireland (SDLT)

Standard residential rates (from 1 April 2025)

Source: GOV.UK — Stamp Duty Land Tax: Residential property rates.

First-time buyer relief (from 1 April 2025)

• 0% on the first £300,000
• 5% on the slice between £300,001 and £500,000
• No relief at all if the price is above £500,000 — you pay the standard rates on the whole price

Source: GOV.UK — Stamp Duty Land Tax: Residential property rates.

Higher rates for additional dwellings (from 31 October 2024)

These apply to second homes, buy-to-let, holiday homes and any purchase where you'll own more than one residential property on completion day.

Source: GOV.UK — Higher rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax. The 5% surcharge replaced the previous 3% rate on 31 October 2024 (SDLTM09845A — HMRC internal manual).

Non-UK resident surcharge

Add 2% on top of whichever rates above apply, if the buyer hasn't spent 183+ days in the UK in the 12 months before purchase. Source: GOV.UK — Rates of SDLT for non-UK residents.

Scotland (LBTT)

Standard residential rates

First-time buyer relief

Nil-rate threshold raised from £145,000 to £175,000 for qualifying first-time buyers. The relief is not withdrawn at higher prices the way it is in England.

Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS)

8% of the whole purchase price, flat — not banded. Raised from 6% on 5 December 2024. Source: Revenue Scotland — The Additional Dwelling Supplement. The Scottish Budget 2026–27 confirmed the rates and ADS will remain at current levels.

Wales (LTT)

Main residential rates (from 10 October 2022)

Wales has no first-time-buyer relief — the £225,000 nil-rate band is already the most generous of the three nations, and the same band applies to every buyer.

Higher residential rates (from 11 December 2024)

Source: Welsh Government — Land Transaction Tax rates and bands.

Worked examples by price band

The numbers below are stamp duty only — no legal fees, search fees, mortgage product fees or survey costs. Round all figures down to the nearest pound; HMRC's calculators may differ by pennies due to rounding rules.

£200,000 — typical regional first home

*Wales has no FTB relief, but the £225k nil-rate band means no LTT on a £200k purchase for anyone.

Workings (England/NI main home): 0% on first £125k (£0) + 2% on £75k (£1,500) = £1,500. Workings (England/NI additional): 5% on first £125k (£6,250) + 7% on £75k (£5,250) = £11,500.

£350,000 — average English non-London first home

Workings (England/NI FTB): 0% on £300k + 5% on £50k = £2,500. Workings (England/NI main home): 0% on £125k + 2% on £125k (£2,500) + 5% on £100k (£5,000) = £7,500. Workings (England/NI additional): 5% on £125k (£6,250) + 7% on £125k (£8,750) + 10% on £100k (£10,000) = £25,000.

£550,000 — London / Home Counties first-time-buyer ceiling

At this price, the England/NI first-time-buyer relief is withdrawn entirely (it cuts off at £500,000).

The FTB relief cliff at £500,000 is the single most important detail for buyers in the South East. A first-time buyer pays £10,000 in SDLT at exactly £500,000 and £15,000 at £500,001 — the relief is all-or-nothing, so crossing the threshold by £1 costs an extra £5,000 in tax. Negotiating £505,000 down to £500,000 saves a first-time buyer £10,250 in total (£5,000 in price + £5,250 in SDLT, because relief restores at exactly £500k).

£925,000 — band boundary (England/NI)

Above £925,000 the SDLT marginal rate jumps from 5% to 10% (main home) and 10% to 15% (additional). A £930,000 offer costs £500 more in tax than a £925,000 offer at the main-home rate, but each £10,000 above the threshold then costs £1,000 in marginal SDLT until £1.5m — twice the rate of the slice immediately below.

Where the changes actually bite

Two practical observations from the data above:

1. The "lost" temporary band costs every English/NI main-home buyer between £125,001 and £250,000 up to £2,500 in extra SDLT. Before 1 April 2025, the nil-rate band was £250,000 and a £250,000 purchase paid £0. Today it pays £2,500. (GOV.UK — Stamp Duty Land Tax rates 31 October 2024 to 31 March 2025.)

2. The October 2024 surcharge increase costs every English/NI additional-property buyer 2% of the whole purchase price. A £300,000 buy-to-let in Manchester paid £11,500 in SDLT in the period from 23 September 2022 to 30 October 2024 (3% surcharge on top of the temporary £250,000 nil-rate band); today, with the 5% surcharge and the £125,000 nil-rate band both reinstated, the same purchase pays £20,000. That £8,500 increase doesn't recover in rent — it's a permanent reduction in net return.

What didn't change

A few quirks survived both budget rounds and are worth knowing:

• Refund window for replacing main home. If you buy a new main residence before selling your previous one, you pay the additional-dwelling surcharge upfront — but you can reclaim it from HMRC if the old main home sells within 36 months. The 36-month limit is unchanged. (GOV.UK — Higher rates of SDLT.)
• Non-resident refund. The 2% non-resident surcharge can be reclaimed if the buyer spends 183 or more days in the UK in any continuous 365-day period spanning the purchase.
• £40,000 floor on the surcharge. The additional-dwelling surcharge only applies if the new property is worth £40,000 or more. Genuinely cheap garage purchases stay outside it.
• Mixed-use property. Part-residential, part-commercial transactions use non-residential rates, which top out at 5% in England and NI. These tend to be lower than residential rates at most price points.

What this means at offer stage

Stamp duty is one of the few costs in a UK purchase you can model exactly before you make an offer. It's also the reason band-boundary negotiation is the highest-leverage move on the buy side. A £5,000 chip at £255,000 saves you 5% of £5,000 in SDLT (£250) plus the £5,000 in cash — a 105% effective discount on the chip. A £5,000 chip at £930,000 saves you 10% of £5,000 (£500) plus the cash — a 110% effective discount.

The bigger move is making the offer at all. The honest first step is to know what the property is actually worth — not what the asking price suggests, and not what an estate-agent valuation says. That's where a free Offrly valuation earns its keep before you write the offer letter.

Run a free Offrly valuation → · Calculate stamp duty for a specific price →

For different jurisdictions: - Scotland LBTT calculator - Wales LTT calculator - First-time-buyer SDLT - Additional-property SDLT - Non-resident SDLT

Sources

• GOV.UK — Stamp Duty Land Tax: Residential property rates — current SDLT bands, first-time-buyer relief, additional-property surcharge, non-resident surcharge.
• GOV.UK — Higher rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax — additional-dwelling surcharge effective 31 October 2024.
• GOV.UK — Stamp Duty Land Tax rates: 31 October 2024 to 31 March 2025 — the transitional period when the £250,000 nil-rate band was still in force.
• GOV.UK — SDLTM09845A: HMRC SDLT manual on the 31 October 2024 surcharge change — surcharge increase from 3% to 5% and the transitional rules.
• Revenue Scotland — Additional Dwelling Supplement — current ADS at 8%.
• gov.scot — Land and Buildings Transaction Tax — Scottish residential bands and first-time-buyer relief.
• Welsh Government — Land Transaction Tax rates and bands — current main-residential bands (10 October 2022) and higher residential rates (11 December 2024).

Disclaimer: This article describes UK stamp duty rules in force as of May 2026 to the best of our knowledge from the linked primary sources. It is not tax advice. Conveyancing-stage figures should be confirmed by a solicitor; bespoke cases (mixed-use, partnership transfers, multiple dwellings relief, divorce/probate transfers) often have specific reliefs and surcharges that change the headline number materially. Offrly valuations are indicative market guidance, not regulated valuations or financial advice — use a RICS-qualified surveyor for mortgage, insurance or probate purposes.