Stamp Duty Land Tax 2026: what you'll actually pay
Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is one of the biggest one-off costs in a property purchase, and one of the most commonly misunderstood — mostly because people assume it's a flat percentage of the whole purchase price. It isn't.
How SDLT is actually banded
SDLT works like Income Tax: it's charged in slices, not as one flat rate on the full price. A 0% band covers the first slice of the purchase price, then progressively higher rates apply only to the portion of the price that falls within each subsequent band — not retroactively to the whole amount. This is why a small increase in purchase price rarely causes a dramatic jump in the tax owed; only the portion above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate.
First-time buyer relief
First-time buyers — people who have never owned a residential property anywhere in the world — typically benefit from a higher 0% threshold than home movers, up to a price cap above which the relief stops applying entirely and standard rates take over. This relief only applies to a main residence, not a buy-to-let or second property.
The additional property surcharge
Buying an additional residential property — a second home or buy-to-let — usually adds a surcharge on top of the standard SDLT bands, applied across the whole price rather than just the portion above a threshold. This surcharge is a major reason buy-to-let and second-home purchase costs have risen sharply in recent years, and it applies even if the additional property is relatively low-value.
SDLT only applies in England and Northern Ireland. Scotland has its own Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), and Wales has Land Transaction Tax (LTT) — both with different bands and rules, so don't apply English SDLT figures to a Scottish or Welsh purchase.
When and how you pay it
SDLT is normally due within a set window after completion (currently 14 days), and in practice it's almost always handled by your solicitor or conveyancer as part of the completion process, who files the return and payment on your behalf. Getting the figure wrong at the offer stage, though, is a common budgeting mistake — it's worth calculating it properly before you make an offer, not after.
Because SDLT is a large, unrecoverable cost of moving, it's also part of the "improve or move" sum: if an extension would give you the space you need, weigh the cost of a house extension and the value it adds against the SDLT, agent and legal fees of trading up.
A quick note
SDLT bands, thresholds and reliefs are reviewed periodically by HMRC and the government — always check current gov.uk figures before relying on an exact number for an offer or purchase. See our full disclaimer.