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Stamp duty on buy-to-let property
A rental purchase almost always carries the additional-property surcharge, and unlike a home mover, a landlord has no way to reclaim it.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
A landlord who already owns a home and buys a £220,000 flat to let pays £12,900 of SDLT in England or Northern Ireland, because the 5% higher rates are added to every band from £40,000. The same flat costs £19,100 in Scotland, where the 8% Additional Dwelling Supplement is charged on the whole price, and £12,400 in Wales on the higher-rates table. Buying through a limited company changes nothing at that price: a company pays the surcharge on its very first dwelling in all three nations, and in England it avoids the 17% flat rate above £500,000 by claiming the relief for a property rental business. Someone who owns no home at all and buys a rental pays ordinary rates, £1,900 here, but no first-time buyer relief. The surcharge on a rental is never refundable.
Buy-to-let: who pays what on your price
Stamp Duty Land Tax for a landlord who owns a home
£12,900
| Of which surcharge (not refundable on a rental) | £11,000 |
| Landlord who owns no other dwelling | £1,900 |
| Limited company letting the property | £12,900 |
Higher rates for companies (+5% on every band)
The landlord’s bill in each nation
Each nation adds its surcharge in a different way, and the gap between them depends on the price. England and Northern Ireland raise every SDLT band by 5%, so even the first £125,000 is taxed at 5%. Scotland leaves the LBTT bands alone and adds the ADS at 8% of the full price. Wales replaces the main table with a separate higher-rates table that starts at 5% and climbs to 17%. The result is that a £100,000 terrace bought to let in Glasgow costs £8,000, against £5,000 for the same price in Leeds and £5,000 in Swansea.
| Price | England & NI | Scotland | Wales | England, no other home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £100,000 | £5,000 | £8,000 | £5,000 | £0 |
| £150,000 | £8,000 | £12,100 | £7,500 | £500 |
| £220,000 | £12,900 | £19,100 | £12,400 | £1,900 |
| £300,000 | £20,000 | £28,600 | £19,950 | £5,000 |
| £450,000 | £35,000 | £54,350 | £36,200 | £12,500 |
| £650,000 | £55,000 | £90,350 | £61,200 | £22,500 |
The last column is the comparison landlords often forget: the same flat bought by someone with no other property. The difference between the two English columns is the surcharge, and it is the price of owning more than one dwelling at the end of completion day. No rental property is too cheap to escape it, except one under £40,000, the floor below which neither SDLT higher rates, ADS nor the Welsh higher rates apply.
Your first rental when you own no home
Some buyers rent where they work and buy where prices allow, then let the property out. If you own nothing else, that purchase leaves you with one dwelling, so the surcharge does not apply in any nation: you pay £1,900 on a £220,000 English flat, £1,500 in Scotland and £0 in Wales. The catch comes on two sides. First-time buyer relief is refused, because the relief requires every buyer to intend to live in the property as their only or main residence; a tenant living there does not count. And the rental makes you a former owner for ever, so when you later buy a home to live in, you will own two dwellings at the end of that day and pay the higher rates on your own home. Selling the rental later does not refund that surcharge, because the rental was never your main residence.
The order of purchases therefore matters. Take a buyer in England planning a £300,000 home and a £220,000 rental. Home first, with the first-time buyer relief, then the rental at the higher rates: £12,900 in total. Rental first at standard rates, then the home at the higher rates: £21,900. The mini-simulator above shows the two rental bills; the second home guide covers the home purchase that follows.
Buying through a limited company
A company is not a person with a home, so the tax authorities treat its first purchase as if it already owned one. All three nations charge their surcharge on a company’s purchase of a dwelling from £40,000, with no exception for a newly formed special purpose vehicle.
| Price | England, rental relief | England, no relief | Scotland | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £150,000 | £8,000 | £8,000 | £12,100 | £7,500 |
| £400,000 | £30,000 | £30,000 | £45,350 | £29,950 |
| £600,000 | £50,000 | £102,000 | £81,350 | £54,950 |
| £1,000,000 | £93,750 | £170,000 | £158,350 | £111,200 |
England and Northern Ireland: the 17% rate
Above £500,000, a company buying a dwelling pays 17% of the entire price unless it qualifies for a relief. The reliefs listed by HMRC include a property rental business letting to unconnected tenants, property developers and traders, properties opened to the public, homes for employees and farmhouses. A buy-to-let company letting on the open market claims the rental business relief on the SDLT return and falls back to the higher rates. Companies holding a dwelling above the annual threshold may also be liable to the Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings, a separate yearly charge outside the scope of this page; the company purchase guide explains both.
Scotland and Wales
Revenue Scotland charges the ADS on every dwelling a company buys, whether or not the company or its owners own anything else. The Welsh Revenue Authority applies the higher-rates table to company purchases from £40,000. The 17% flat rate is an SDLT rule, so in Scotland and Wales the company’s bill is simply the surcharge bill shown in the table.
Why a landlord cannot reclaim the surcharge
The refund that home movers rely on is built around one idea: the new property replaces your main residence, and the surcharge only fell due because the old main residence had not sold yet. A rental is never your main residence, so buying one and later selling another rental, or even selling your own home, does not unlock a repayment of the surcharge on the rental. The £11,000 added to a £220,000 English flat is a permanent cost of the investment. Landlords sometimes see the word “refundable” in a calculator result and assume it applies to them; it applies only to a replacement of your home.
Spouses, partners and joint landlords
Married couples and civil partners who live together count as a single unit in England and Wales: if one spouse owns the family home and the other buys a flat to let in their sole name, the higher rates apply. Scotland goes further and treats cohabiting partners as part of the same economic unit for the ADS. When two friends or siblings buy a rental together, one of them owning a home is enough to put the whole purchase on the surcharge, not just that buyer’s share; the joint purchase calculator works through the combinations.
Landlords based abroad
A buyer who spent fewer than 183 days in the UK during the year before completion pays a further 2% on every SDLT band in England and Northern Ireland, on top of the higher rates. On a £300,000 rental that adds £6,000. Scotland and Wales have no such charge, which can tilt the comparison for an expatriate investor. The non-resident surcharge can be reclaimed if the buyer later meets the day count.
Buying six or more flats at once
A landlord acquiring a whole block in a single transaction in England or Northern Ireland can use the non-residential table when it contains six or more dwellings, a route that has replaced multiple dwellings relief since 1 June 2024. On a £1,500,000 purchase that table gives £64,500, against £168,750 at the residential higher rates.