Stamp Duty on a £150,000 House 2026

Quick answer: a standard buyer pays £500. A first-time buyer pays £0. A second-home or buy-to-let buyer pays £8,000 after the 5% additional-dwellings surcharge. Below: the band math, the Scotland and Wales comparison (both cheaper), and the refund route for accidental surcharges.

By buyer type at £150,000

Side by side at exactly £150,000 across every buyer type and every UK regime.

Scotland LBTT second-home figure includes the Additional Dwelling Supplement at 8% of the full £150,000 (£12,000) plus standard LBTT of £100. Wales LTT second-home figure uses the residential higher-rate schedule effective December 2024 (4% on first £180,000, dropping below the threshold here so the higher band applies from £0). Non-UK resident 2% surcharge applies in England and Northern Ireland only, per Schedule 9A FA 2003 inserted by FA 2021.

How the £500 standard SDLT is built

Band-by-band math for a standard buyer at £150,000 in England or Northern Ireland.

The effective rate at £150,000 is 0.33% (£500 divided by £150,000). At this price point, SDLT is the smallest line on a typical completion statement. Solicitor disbursements (Land Registry fee, official searches, bankruptcy and priority searches) often total a similar amount; conveyancer legal fees are usually two to three times higher. See how to pay SDLT for completion timing.

Why first-time buyer pays nothing at £150,000

The first-time buyer nil-rate band is £300,000 from 1 April 2025 under Schedule 6ZA of the Finance Act 2003 as amended. A £150,000 purchase sits well below the threshold, so the entire price falls in the FTB 0% band and no SDLT is due. The standard buyer saves £500 by qualifying for FTB relief at this price; the saving grows substantially as the price rises and only disappears entirely at £500,000 (the FTB cliff edge, where standard SDLT and FTB SDLT both become £15,000).

FTB relief is binary at the buyer level: every named purchaser on the title must have never owned a residential interest anywhere in the world. A single co-buyer with prior ownership disqualifies the whole transaction. HMRC's FTB guidance and the SDLT Manual at SDLTM29800 set out the eligibility tests in detail.

For more context on FTB relief in general and the upper limit cliff at £500,000, see the dedicated first-time buyer page.

Why a second-home buyer pays sixteen times more at £150,000

The £8,000 second-home charge at £150,000 looks shocking next to the standard £500, and the multiple (16x) is the highest of any common price point because the surcharge applies from the first pound while standard SDLT only applies above £125,000. The Higher Rates for Additional Dwellings rules in Schedule 4ZA FA 2003 add 5% to every band, so the £125,000 that a standard buyer pays nothing on attracts £6,250 of surcharge for a second-home buyer, and the £25,000 above £125,000 attracts 7% (2% standard plus 5% surcharge), or £1,750.

The surcharge was raised from 3% to 5% on 31 October 2024 with effect from purchases completing on or after that date (Autumn Statement 2024 measure). Before that date a £150,000 second home cost £5,000; after, £8,000. If you exchanged before 31 October 2024 but completed afterwards, the lower 3% rate still applies under transitional rules in paragraph 7 of the Autumn Statement 2024 SDLT measure.

The surcharge applies if the additional dwelling costs at least £40,000 and you (or your spouse) own one or more dwellings worth at least £40,000 each at the end of the day of purchase, and you are not replacing your main residence. See the dedicated additional property page and the second home page for the full conditions.

£150,000 across the three UK nations

England and Northern Ireland are the most expensive at £150,000 because the SDLT nil-rate band sits at £125,000, the lowest of the three. Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) with a higher nil-rate band of £145,000, so the taxable slice at £150,000 is only £5,000 and the LBTT is just £100. Wales charges Land Transaction Tax (LTT) with the highest nil-rate band at £225,000, so a £150,000 main-residence purchase in Wales pays no LTT at all.

For the second-home buyer the picture inverts. Scotland charges the 8% Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) on the full purchase price, not just the slice above a threshold, so a £150,000 second home in Scotland costs £12,000 in ADS plus £100 LBTT for £12,100 total, the highest of the three nations. Wales applies its higher residential rates (4% on the first £180,000) so a £150,000 second home pays £6,000 in LTT.

For the full Scotland and Wales rate tables see Scotland LBTT and Wales LTT; for side-by-side comparison see LBTT vs SDLT and LTT vs SDLT.

Mortgage and total purchase cost context

At £150,000 the SDLT charge of £500 is small enough that most buyers fund it from completion-day cash alongside the deposit. Adding £500 to a 25-year mortgage at 5% would cost roughly £3 a month, which is rounding-error scale next to deposit, fees, and Land Registry costs.

The total fee budget for a £150,000 main-residence purchase in England typically looks like this: SDLT £500, solicitor legal fee £900 to £1,600 inclusive of VAT, Land Registry fee £150 (digital), official searches and CHAPS fees £150 to £300, lender valuation £0 to £400 depending on the mortgage product, and survey £400 to £1,500 depending on level. Total typical cash-out at completion (excluding deposit and mortgage broker fee) is £2,100 to £4,500.

By contrast a £150,000 second-home or buy-to-let purchase has SDLT alone at £8,000, which dwarfs every other purchase cost and is usually the single largest line on the completion statement.

Frequently Asked Questions

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