Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is the transaction tax on residential and commercial property purchases in England and Northern Ireland — a stepped percentage of the purchase price, calculated on completion and paid to HMRC within fourteen days. In April 2025 the temporary thresholds introduced during the 2022 mini-budget expired, and the pre-2022 bands returned; for 2026 those returned bands remain in force, alongside the 5% additional-dwelling surcharge in effect since October 2024.
This guide brings the practical picture together in one place: the standard band table, the size of first-time buyer relief in its post-April-2025 form, when the 5% additional-dwelling surcharge kicks in, how the 2% non-UK resident surcharge stacks on top, the regional divergence with Scotland's LBTT and Wales's LTT, and the small handful of mistakes that most reliably inflate the final bill. Rates cited reflect current HMRC guidance and the Finance Act consolidation carried into 2026.
What Stamp Duty Land Tax is in 2026
SDLT is a tax on the transfer of an interest in land or property in England and Northern Ireland, payable by the buyer. It is calculated in bands — only the portion of the purchase price falling inside each band is taxed at that band's rate, in the same style as income tax. The bill is calculated on the effective purchase price (including certain linked-transaction values) and payable to HMRC within fourteen days of the effective date of the transaction, almost always the completion date.
Scotland and Wales have their own regimes: Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) replaced SDLT in Scotland in 2015, and Land Transaction Tax (LTT) replaced it in Wales in 2018. The three regimes share the tiered-band shape but diverge on threshold values, first-time buyer relief and higher-rate treatment. Where a purchase spans a devolved and non-devolved area, the situs test in the sale contract determines which tax applies.
What changed for 2026 — and what stayed the same
The most consequential change happened at the April 2025 threshold reversion, and its effects carry unchanged into 2026. The standard nil-rate band returned from £250,000 to £125,000. First-time buyer relief returned from £425,000 nil / £625,000 maximum property price to £300,000 nil / £500,000 maximum. The additional-dwelling surcharge rate, which rose from 3% to 5% in October 2024, remains at 5% in 2026. No further threshold changes have been announced for the 2026-27 tax year.
The practical impact is felt most sharply in the £250,000 to £500,000 band, where the tax due on a standard purchase has effectively doubled compared with the 2022-2025 temporary regime. Buyers using an SDLT calculator published before April 2025 will see an artificially low number — a quick sanity check on the source date of any calculator is worth the minute.
The reverted bands hit the £250,000 to £500,000 middle-market hardest. On a £450,000 standard purchase the tax rose from £10,000 in 2024 to £12,500 in 2025 — and stays there in 2026.
The standard SDLT bands and rates for 2026
For a standard buyer purchasing a main residence — not a first-time buyer, not an additional dwelling, and UK-resident — the following bands apply. The tax due is the sum of each band's rate applied to the portion of the price that falls inside that band.
| Purchase price band | Rate on that band |
|---|---|
| Up to £125,000 | 0% |
| £125,001 – £250,000 | 2% |
| £250,001 – £925,000 | 5% |
| £925,001 – £1,500,000 | 10% |
| Above £1,500,000 | 12% |
A £1,200,000 main-residence purchase pays £0 on the first £125k, £2,500 on the £125k up to £250k, £33,750 on the £675k up to £925k, and £27,500 on the £275k up to £1.2m — total £63,750. On the same property a non-UK resident buyer with another residential property elsewhere would pay an additional 5% + 2% on the full price, adding £84,000 to the bill.
First-time buyer relief in 2026
First-time buyer relief cuts SDLT on eligible purchases up to £500,000. Below £300,000 no SDLT is due; between £300,000 and £500,000 the portion above £300,000 is taxed at 5%. Above £500,000 the relief is not available at all — the standard bands apply from the first pound.
- Never previously owned or part-owned a residential property anywhere in the world;
- Buying the property as your only or main residence, not as an investment or additional dwelling;
- Purchase price at or below £500,000 — there is no partial relief above this ceiling;
- Where two or more people buy jointly, every buyer must meet the first-time-buyer test for the relief to apply.
The relief taper ends abruptly at £500,000 — a purchase at £500,001 pays SDLT on the standard bands from the first pound.
The 5% additional-dwelling surcharge
Since 30 October 2024 the additional-dwelling surcharge (often shortened to «the higher rate») is 5% on top of the standard SDLT rates — up from the 3% figure that had applied since 2016. It captures buy-to-let, second homes, holiday lets and any transaction where the buyer ends the day owning two or more residential properties anywhere in the world.
- At the end of the day of completion, will you own two or more residential properties — anywhere in the world — counting spouses, civil partners and minor children in your household?
- If yes, are you replacing a main residence you have sold, or will sell, within the 36-month window?
- If you are replacing a main residence but have not yet sold the previous one, the surcharge is due at completion but is reclaimable once the previous sale completes inside the window.
- Corporate buyers (companies, trusts, partnerships in some structures) pay the surcharge regardless of «additional» status.
- Non-UK resident buyers pay this surcharge on top of the 2% non-resident surcharge, both stacked on the standard bands.
Non-UK resident surcharge, LBTT and LTT
A 2% non-UK resident surcharge applies where the buyer has not been resident in the UK for at least 183 days in the twelve months preceding completion. It stacks on top of the standard bands and any additional-dwelling surcharge, and applies uniformly across the SDLT bands. Overseas buyers of a higher-value London or Home Counties home can therefore face a total marginal SDLT rate above 19%.
| Regime | Standard tax at £500,000 main home | First-time buyer scheme |
|---|---|---|
| SDLT (England & NI) | £15,000 | £300k nil / up to £500k |
| LBTT (Scotland) | £23,350 | £175k nil (no upper cap) |
| LTT (Wales) | £17,950 | No dedicated FTB scheme |
Devolved differences bite most for buyers moving between regions: a Scottish or Welsh purchaser relocating to London will find the SDLT bill materially different from what LBTT or LTT would have produced on an equivalent price, and vice versa. Estate agents in border areas routinely quote a per-regime SDLT figure alongside the price.
Principal Private Residence relief on the way out
Alongside the transaction-side reliefs above, the biggest single tax exemption in UK property is on the sale side: Principal Private Residence relief, which removes any Capital Gains Tax charge on the disposal of a property that has been the seller's only or main residence throughout ownership. It applies regardless of the value of the property and regardless of the gain.
The relief is one of the reasons long-tenure owners of higher-value homes see the entire uplift in their property's value pass through to them tax-free. Where the property has been let out, used as a second home for part of the ownership period, or was the seller's main residence only for a portion of the ownership, the relief is apportioned — the calculation is technical and typically warrants advice from a chartered tax adviser.
How SDLT reliefs interact with other schemes
Several reliefs, schemes and structures interact with SDLT. The most common questions concern first-time buyer relief in combination with other benefits, and whether the Multiple Dwellings Relief route is still available for a portfolio-style purchase.
| Scheme / relief | Works with FTB relief | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Lifetime ISA deposit | Yes | The LISA balance funds the deposit; the SDLT calculation is separate and unaffected. |
| Shared Ownership | Two options | Buyer can pay SDLT on the initial share only, or make a «market value» election on the full price. |
| Multiple Dwellings Relief (MDR) | Abolished | MDR was abolished on 1 June 2024 for most residential transactions. |
| Additional-dwelling surcharge (5%) | No | FTB relief cannot combine with the 5% surcharge — by definition FTBs own no other dwelling. |
| Non-UK resident surcharge (2%) | No | Non-UK-resident buyers cannot claim FTB relief regardless of purchase history. |
The mistakes buyers most often make on the SDLT return
The mistake that most reliably inflates a bill is relying on a pre-April-2025 SDLT calculator. The temporary 2022 thresholds ran for nearly three years, and many published calculators still show the old numbers — the difference in the £250k-£500k band alone can be £5,000 or more per transaction. HMRC's own SDLT calculator on GOV.UK is the reliable source.
The second most costly is forgetting a spouse or civil partner's separate property for the additional-dwelling test. HMRC treats couples as jointly owning each other's residential property for the surcharge test, even where the second property is in the other party's sole name and there is no interest in it whatsoever.
The single most expensive error we see in reader questions is the buyer who misses the 36-month window to reclaim the additional-dwelling surcharge after the sale of the previous main residence. The surcharge is often a five-figure sum on higher-value purchases; miss the deadline and it is not refundable, even where the previous sale eventually completes.
Get the full guide to UK Stamp Duty in 2026
Enter your name and email. We'll send you a plain-English PDF covering the reverted standard bands, first-time buyer relief up to £500,000, the 5% additional-dwelling surcharge, the 2% non-UK resident surcharge, and the regional differences with LBTT and LTT — all in one document.