How much will I pay?
In England and Northern Ireland:
| Price | First-time buyer | Other buyers | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| £250,000 | £0 | £2,500 | £2,500 |
| £300,000 | £0 | £5,000 | £5,000 |
| £350,000 | £2,500 | £7,500 | £5,000 |
| £400,000 | £5,000 | £10,000 | £5,000 |
| £450,000 | £7,500 | £12,500 | £5,000 |
| £500,000 | £10,000 | £15,000 | £5,000 |
| £550,000 | £17,500 | £17,500 | £0 |
“Other buyers” here means someone who has owned a home before and is buying their only home. If you’ll own another home as well, you pay 5% more on every band.
Example: you’re a first-time buyer paying £400,000. You pay nothing on the first £300,000 and 5% on the other £100,000, so your Stamp Duty is £5,000.
The £500,000 cliff edge
The relief doesn’t fade out gradually. Go even £1 over £500,000 and you lose all of it.
Above £500,000, first-time buyers pay the same as everyone else, on the whole price.
At £500,000 a first-time buyer pays £10,000. At £500,001 they’d pay £15,000, the same as everyone else. If you’re buying close to £500,000, getting the price to £500,000 or less saves you £5,000.
Who counts as a first-time buyer?
You must never have owned a home, anywhere in the world. That includes:
- a home, or a share of one, that you inherited or were given
- a part share in a home, even a small one
- a home abroad
These don’t count against you:
- owning only commercial property, such as a shop with no flat
- a lease that had less than 21 years to run when you got it
You must also plan to live in the home as your only or main home. You don’t have to move in straight away.
Buying with someone else
Every buyer must be a first-time buyer. If one of you has owned a home before, none of you get the relief.
If you’re married or in a civil partnership and only you are buying, your partner’s past homes don’t matter. But if your partner owns a home now, you’ll usually pay the higher rates for additional homes, and there’s no first-time buyer relief on those.
Shared ownership
You can get the relief on a shared ownership home if its full market value is £500,000 or less. You can either pay Stamp Duty once, on the full value, or pay in stages as you buy more of the home. Ask your solicitor which suits you.
If you live abroad
If you’ve spent fewer than 183 days in the UK in the 12 months before you buy, you pay an extra 2% on every band, including the first-time buyer rates. So you’d pay 2% up to £300,000 and 7% from £300,001 to £500,000.
How do I claim it?
Your solicitor or conveyancer usually claims it for you on the Stamp Duty return when you complete. The return must reach HMRC within 14 days of completion, even if you owe nothing.
You’re still responsible for the return being right and on time, so check that they’ve claimed the relief.
Scotland and Wales
Scotland has Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) instead. First-time buyers pay nothing on the first £175,000 rather than £145,000, which saves up to £600, at any price. The rules on who qualifies are much the same: every buyer must be a first-time buyer, and the home must be your main one.
| Price | First-time buyer | Other buyers |
|---|---|---|
| £175,000 | £0 | £600 |
| £200,000 | £500 | £1,100 |
| £250,000 | £1,500 | £2,100 |
| £300,000 | £4,000 | £4,600 |
Wales has Land Transaction Tax (LTT), and there’s no first-time buyer relief. But everyone pays nothing on the first £225,000, so a £200,000 home has no tax to pay and a £250,000 home has £1,500.
Could the rules change?
These are the rules for homes bought now. The Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026 didn’t change Stamp Duty on buying a home, so they still apply in 2027/28. It did lower the Lifetime ISA charge for a first home over £450,000 to 20%: see what the Budget means for you.
Work it out for your home
Our Stamp Duty calculator works out the tax on any price in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales. And our How much can I borrow calculator takes the Stamp Duty out of your savings before working out your deposit, so you can see the price you can really afford.