Residential stamp duty calculator

Planning a buy-to-let purchase? Explore the deposit, purchase costs and monthly cash flow in our buy-to-let calculator.

Buying or leasing commercial property? Use our commercial stamp duty calculator.

This calculator also handles a new residential lease with a level annual rent for at least 8 years. For variable rent, rent-free periods, shorter leases, shared ownership, linked transactions or other special circumstances, use HMRC’s SDLT calculator and confirm the transaction with your conveyancer.

How to use it

• Enter the purchase price or new lease premium, not the mortgage amount. For a new long lease, enter the term and level annual rent too.
• Choose who is buying, then the kind of personal purchase if relevant. The higher rates apply where you will own more than one residential property at the end of the day of purchase, the price is £40,000 or more, and your interest in the other dwelling is worth £40,000 or more. An eligible replacement of your main residence is an exception; use the completed-replacement option if its conditions are met.
• If you are buying your main home before the old one is sold, use the second option. You own two homes at the end of completion day, so the higher rates are due then, and the extra is reclaimed afterwards.
• If you keep another property without an eligible main-home replacement, use the third option. If your previous main home has already been disposed of and you meet the replacement conditions, choose Eligible replacement: standard rates can apply even while you keep a separate buy to let.
• First-time buyer relief needs every buyer to have never owned a home, in the UK or anywhere else in the world, and you must intend to live in it as your only or main residence.
• Where a comparison is possible the result shows it, so you can see the difference the surcharge or first-time buyer relief makes.

New residential leases with rent

For a new residential lease, SDLT on the premium and SDLT on the rent are worked out separately and added. This tool accepts a lease of 8 to 999 whole years with the same annual rent throughout. It discounts each year's rent by 3.5% to calculate its net present value. The resident rent rate is nil on the first £125,000 of that value and 1% above it. If the non-UK resident surcharge applies, two percentage points are added to both rent bands as well as the premium bands. A new lease may require a return even if nothing is payable: generally, a lease of seven years or more is exempt from notification only when its premium is under £40,000 and annual rent under £1,000. See HMRC's leasehold guidance and its net present value example.

Variable rent, rent-free periods, a term under eight years, shared ownership and linked leases need a transaction-specific calculation. Use HMRC's calculator and your conveyancer for those cases.

The bands, and why it is not one flat percentage

Stamp duty is charged in slices, like income tax. You do not pay the top rate on the whole price, only on the part that falls in each band. The rates below are the 2026/27 rates, in force since 1 April 2025.

So a £300,000 main home is nothing on the first £125,000, 2% on the next £125,000 and 5% on the last £50,000, which comes to £5,000 rather than 5% of the whole price.

HMRC rounds the calculated tax down to the nearest pound, so a price of £499,999 gives £14,999 rather than £15,000.

The additional property surcharge

Buying a second home, a buy to let, or any property that leaves you owning more than one, adds 5 percentage points to every band, including the band that would otherwise be nil. On a £250,000 purchase that is £12,500 on top of the £2,500 a main home would pay (2026/27).

The higher rates have an entry threshold. They apply only where the chargeable consideration is £40,000 or more, and only where you already hold an interest worth £40,000 or more in another dwelling. Below £40,000 the standard rates apply, which means nothing to pay, and a purchase under £40,000 with no linked transactions and no rent element does not need an SDLT return at all.

The surcharge is not only for second homes. If you are buying a home to live in, but you already own another dwelling worth £40,000 or more and this purchase does not replace a main home you have sold, the higher rates apply to it, and there is no refund to claim later.

If you are replacing your main residence but have not yet sold the old one, you own two homes at the end of the day you complete, so the higher rates are payable then. The extra can be reclaimed if the previous main home sells within 36 months of completion. The reclaim is not automatic: it is a separate claim, and it must be made within 12 months of that sale, or within 12 months of the filing date of the SDLT return, whichever is later.

First-time buyer relief has a cliff edge

First-time buyers pay nothing up to £300,000 and 5% between £300,000 and £500,000 (2026/27). Above £500,000 the relief is lost entirely, not tapered. A purchase at £500,000 carries £10,000 of stamp duty; at £505,000 the standard rates apply to the whole price and the bill is £15,250.

That is a real cliff, and it is worth knowing about before agreeing a price just over the line.

The relief also has conditions. Every buyer must be a first-time buyer, meaning none of you has ever owned a home or an equivalent interest in a dwelling, in the UK or in any country outside it, and you must intend to occupy the property as your only or main residence. If any buyer has owned before, the standard rates apply to the whole price.

Common questions

This is an estimate for general information, not advice. Your position depends on your circumstances. Speak to us before acting.