For UK landlords, letting agents & inventory clerks
Buying a property that is not your only home costs considerably more in stamp duty than buying one that is. In England and Northern Ireland, a second home or a buy-to-let is charged Stamp Duty Land Tax at the standard rates plus five percentage points on every band — a surcharge raised from 3% to 5% on 31 October 2024 and unchanged since.
This page sets out the rates as they stand on 22 August 2026, the rules that decide whether the surcharge applies to you, and the two separate three-year windows that let some buyers avoid it or claim it back. It also covers what changed for portfolio buyers when multiple dwellings relief was abolished, why companies face a flat 17% charge above £500,000, and how Scotland and Wales differ.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. SDLT turns on specific facts — what you already own, who you are married to, what you intend to live in — and getting it wrong is expensive in both directions. Confirm your own position with a conveyancer or tax adviser before you exchange.
Last reviewed 22 August 2026 · checked against GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk
SDLT is charged in slices, not on the whole price at a single rate. Since 1 April 2025 the residential bands for England and Northern Ireland have been 0% up to £125,000, 2% to £250,000, 5% to £925,000, 10% to £1.5 million and 12% above that. Those are the rates for someone buying a single home to live in.
If the purchase means you will own more than one residential property, add five percentage points to every band. The higher rates for additional dwellings are:
On a £300,000 buy-to-let that is £6,250 + £8,750 + £5,000 = £20,000, against £5,000 for the same property bought as a sole home. Because the uplift is a flat five points across every band, the surcharge element always equals exactly 5% of the full price — £15,000 here — which makes your conveyancer's figure easy to sanity-check.
The common trap is the accidental landlord: someone keeping a first flat, letting it out, and buying a home with a partner. Provided the retained flat is worth £40,000 or more, the surcharge lands on the new purchase.
A separate 2% non-resident surcharge stacks on top of everything above. You are treated as non-resident if you were not in the UK for at least 183 days in the 12 months before the purchase, which takes the top slice for a non-resident buying an additional dwelling to 19%.
That position is not fixed at completion. If you spend at least 183 days in the UK in any continuous 365-day period ending within the 12 months after the purchase, you count as UK resident for the transaction and can amend the return to reclaim the 2%. The claim must reach HMRC within two years of the effective date, so it is worth diarising at the point of purchase rather than trying to remember later.
Married couples and civil partners help each other here: if one of you meets the 183-day test, both are treated as UK resident for the purchase, unless you are separated.
Two three-year rules exist and they are routinely confused.
Sold first. If you disposed of your previous main residence within the three years before you buy, and the new property will be your main residence, the higher rates do not apply at all — even if you own other property. Nothing extra is paid, so there is nothing to reclaim.
Buying before selling. If you complete on the new home before the old one sells, you pay the surcharge up front and reclaim it once the old home is sold, provided that sale happens within three years of the new purchase.
The claim deadline is separate from that window and is missed surprisingly often. For sales on or after 29 October 2018, HMRC must receive the refund request by the later of 12 months after the date of sale, or 12 months after the filing date of the SDLT return for the new home.
HMRC can extend the three years where exceptional circumstances prevented the sale, but reads that narrowly: government restrictions or action by a public authority may count; a collapsed chain or a slow market will not. It is a discretionary decision on a written application, not an automatic extension, and it carries its own deadline — stricter than the ordinary one. Under Finance Act 2003, Schedule 4ZA, paragraph 3(7B)(a) the application must reach HMRC within 12 months of the date you sold the previous home, with no "filing date if later" fallback. You must also sell without further delay once the obstacle clears, and the circumstances must be ones you could not reasonably have foreseen. You must also sell without further delay once the obstacle clears.
First-time buyer relief gives no SDLT up to £300,000 and 5% on the slice from £300,001 to £500,000. Above £500,000 the relief is not tapered — it vanishes entirely and standard rates apply to the whole price. That makes £500,000 a real cliff edge, worth roughly £5,000 for a single pound over the line.
Landlords should not plan around it. The relief requires that you intend to occupy the property as your only or main residence, so a first purchase bought to let out does not qualify. "First-time buyer" also means you have never acquired a major interest in a dwelling anywhere in the world, including by gift or inheritance, and where there is more than one purchaser, every one of them must meet the test.
Incorporating does not avoid the surcharge. A company pays the higher rates on any residential purchase of £40,000 or more, whether or not it already owns another dwelling. The £40,000 floor applies to companies exactly as it does to individuals; what a company lacks is the requirement to own a second property and the main-residence exemption.
Above £500,000 something sharper applies. A company or other non-natural person buying a dwelling for more than £500,000 pays a flat 17% on the entire consideration, not a banded calculation. That rate rose from 15% on 31 October 2024. On a £600,000 house it is £102,000, against £50,000 under the ordinary higher rates. Reliefs exist and most genuine landlord companies qualify — property rental business relief is the usual route, alongside reliefs for developers and traders, lending institutions, employee occupation, farmhouses and qualifying housing co-operatives. Relief is claimed on the return and can be withdrawn if the property later stops qualifying, for example if a shareholder or connected individual moves in. Take advice before exchange, not after.
Portfolios. Multiple dwellings relief was abolished for transactions completing or substantially performed on or after 1 June 2024, bar contracts exchanged on or before 6 March 2024 and not varied since. What survives is the six-dwelling rule: where six or more separate dwellings are bought in a single transaction they are treated as non-residential — 0% to £150,000, 2% to £250,000, 5% above — with no surcharge. On £900,000 for six flats that is £34,500, against £80,000 at the higher residential rates.
Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, with an Additional Dwelling Supplement of 8% for transactions on or after 5 December 2024, a £40,000 threshold and a 36-month replacement window either side of the purchase. Wales charges Land Transaction Tax; its higher residential rates, in force since 11 December 2024, start at 5% on the first £180,000 and reach 17% above £1.5 million, and there is no first-time buyer relief. Check current bands on revenue.scot and gov.wales.
Filing. The SDLT return and the payment are both due within 14 days of completion, and a return is normally needed even where a relief reduces the bill to nil.
No. The higher rates only apply where the purchase leaves you owning more than one residential property worth £40,000 or more. A first-ever purchase that happens to be a rental is taxed at the standard rates. You cannot claim first-time buyer relief on it, though, because that relief requires you to intend to live in the property as your only or main residence.
Yes, if the new property is your main residence and you sell the previous main residence within three years of the purchase. HMRC must receive the refund claim by the later of 12 months after the date of sale or 12 months after the filing date of the SDLT return for the new home. Only the main buyer, or an agent acting for them, can make the claim.
No. A company pays the higher rates on any residential purchase of £40,000 or more, whether or not it already owns a dwelling, and a property costing more than £500,000 attracts a flat 17% on the whole price unless a relief such as property rental business relief applies. Incorporation should be decided on the wider tax, mortgage and administrative picture with professional advice, not on SDLT.
No. MDR was abolished for transactions completing or substantially performed on or after 1 June 2024. The only survivors are transactions where contracts were exchanged on or before 6 March 2024 and not varied since. Separately, buying six or more separate dwellings in a single transaction is still treated as non-residential, which gives lower bands and no additional-dwellings surcharge.
Yes. Ownership of a major interest in a residential property anywhere in the world counts, including a share acquired by gift or inheritance, provided it is worth £40,000 or more. Married couples and civil partners are treated as a single unit unless permanently separated, so a spouse's overseas property can trigger the surcharge on a purchase made in your name alone.
File the SDLT return and pay within 14 days of completion, then focus on the tenancy. Since 1 May 2026 the Renters' Rights Act 2025 has governed lettings in England: existing assured shorthold tenancies converted to assured periodic tenancies, fixed terms have gone and section 21 no-fault possession has been replaced by stated grounds. That makes evidence matter more, so keep a dated, itemised check-in record and a matching check-out — tools such as The Property AI produce time-stamped photo inventory reports for exactly that. None of this is legal advice.
Every figure and date on this page was checked against these primary sources on 22 August 2026. Law and rates change — verify before you act.
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