Good Houses
Stamp duty calculator
Step 1 of 3
Where's the property?
Stamp duty rules are different in England & Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, so we need to know which one applies.
Unlike the rest of our calculators, this one is not an estimate. Stamp duty is a tax with published rates, so what you see here is what you will owe on the details you have entered.
It is easy to forget while you are house hunting, because it never appears on a listing. It is real money all the same, and you pay it on the day you complete, through your solicitor. The sensible way to use this is to add it to the asking price of anything you view, so the number in your head is the true cost of buying that house rather than the one in the advert.
England and Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland each set their own rates, and first-time buyer relief changes the answer again.
How the bands are worked out
Stamp duty is banded, not a single percentage: each slice of the price is taxed at its own rate, and only the part above each threshold is charged at the higher one. The calculator works through the bands in order and adds them up, which is why the effective rate you end up paying is always lower than the top band you reach.
Which bands apply depends on where the property is. England and Northern Ireland use Stamp Duty Land Tax, Wales uses Land Transaction Tax, and Scotland uses Land and Buildings Transaction Tax. Three genuinely different systems with different thresholds and different reliefs, not variations on one. The calculator picks the right regime from the property's location.
Your circumstances then change which band table is used: first-time buyers have their own thresholds, additional properties carry a surcharge on every band, and non-UK residents carry a further one.
The rates live in a dated table rather than in the code, because they change at fiscal events and often at short notice. That means they can be corrected the day a change is announced.
Every figure behind this comes from a table we maintain by hand and review on a schedule. The date of the last review is shown on this page, so you can judge how current it is rather than take our word for it.
What this stamp duty figure covers
The figure covers:
- The correct regime for the country the property is in
- Banded calculation across every threshold, not a flat percentage
- First-time buyer relief, where it applies
- The additional property surcharge, where it applies
- The non-UK resident surcharge, where it applies
What this leaves out of your moving costs
This is the tax only. Buying a home also involves:
- Conveyancing and legal fees
- Survey and valuation
- Mortgage arrangement and broker fees
- Land Registry fees and searches
- Removals
Our extend-or-move calculator includes these alongside stamp duty, if you are weighing moving against building.
Why the country you buy in changes everything
This is the one calculator where location changes the answer completely rather than adjusting it. Wales and Scotland do not use different rates within the same system. They use different systems, with their own thresholds, their own reliefs and their own surcharges.
The calculator selects the regime from where the property is, not where you live now. If you are moving between countries within the UK, it is the destination that decides the tax.
Checking this before you exchange
Use it to budget, and confirm the figure with your conveyancer before you exchange. Stamp duty is the largest single cost of moving after the deposit, and it is due whether or not you were expecting it.
Rates change at Budgets and sometimes take effect immediately. If you are calculating months ahead of a completion date, check again nearer the time, and note the date shown on this page, which tells you when our table was last reviewed.
Common questions
Am I a first-time buyer?
Broadly, if you have never owned a property anywhere in the world. It is stricter than people expect. Inheriting a share of a property usually counts, as does having owned one abroad. Your conveyancer will confirm it, and getting it wrong is expensive.
What counts as an additional property?
Owning any other residential property anywhere in the world on the day you complete, which catches more people than expected. There is usually relief if you are replacing your main home and sell within a set period.
Are these rates current?
The date of the last review is shown on this page. Rates are held in a dated table specifically so they can be updated the day a change is announced rather than at the next deployment, but always confirm with your conveyancer for a transaction you are actually making.
Is this a quote?
No. It is an estimate built from typical costs, and no contractor is bound by it. Use it to know whether a quote you have been given is roughly where it should be, and to walk into that conversation knowing what questions to ask.
Why do you show a range instead of one number?
Because one number would be misleading. The answer to "what will this cost" is a range, and where you land inside it depends on your property, your area and who you hire. Any tool giving you a single figure to the pound is telling you something it cannot know.
Do you save what I type in?
No. The calculation runs and the answers are discarded. Nothing is written down unless you explicitly ask us to email or save a result. We do not build a profile from calculator use.
How current are the figures?
The date of the last review is shown on this page. The costs behind the calculator are maintained by hand rather than scraped, and reviewed on a schedule.