By city
Stamp duty in Belfast and Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland never got its own purchase tax: buyers in Belfast pay HMRC’s Stamp Duty Land Tax.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
Northern Ireland uses the same Stamp Duty Land Tax as England, collected by HMRC with the same bands, the same first-time buyer relief and the same surcharges, because the tax was devolved to Scotland and Wales but never to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The average home in Belfast sold for £184,768 in July 2026, according to the UK House Price Index, so a buyer who will own only that home pays £1,195. A first-time buyer at that price pays £0, since the relief is tax-free up to £300,000. Across Northern Ireland the average was £202,487, which costs £1,549. Lower prices than in most of England mean lower bills for owner-occupiers, but a second home or buy-to-let still pays the 5% surcharge: £10,433 on the Belfast average.
More options: commercial property, company relief
Stamp Duty Land Tax · England and Northern Ireland
£1,195
0.7% of £184,768 · rule applied: Standard residential rates
| Portion | Rate | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| £0 to £125,000 | 0% | £0 |
| £125,000 to £250,000 | 2% | £1,195 |
Return and payment due within 14 days of completion.
Same purchase elsewhere in the UK
Every council area
Northern Ireland’s index is published for each of its 11 local government districts. All of them use the same SDLT bands; the table only changes the price.
| District | Average price | SDLT, one home | First-time buyer | Additional property |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lisburn and Castlereagh | £240,737 | £2,314 | £0 | £14,351 |
| Ards and North Down | £227,275 | £2,045 | £0 | £13,409 |
| Newry Mourne and Down | £220,572 | £1,911 | £0 | £12,940 |
| Causeway Coast and Glens | £218,871 | £1,877 | £0 | £12,820 |
| Antrim and Newtownabbey | £206,120 | £1,622 | £0 | £11,928 |
| Fermanagh and Omagh | £201,732 | £1,534 | £0 | £11,621 |
| Mid Ulster | £195,453 | £1,409 | £0 | £11,181 |
| Derry City and Strabane | £189,474 | £1,289 | £0 | £10,763 |
| Armagh City Banbridge and Craigavon | £186,993 | £1,239 | £0 | £10,589 |
| Belfast | £184,768 | £1,195 | £0 | £10,433 |
| Mid and East Antrim | £177,450 | £1,049 | £0 | £9,921 |
Northern Ireland by type of home
| Home | Average price | SDLT, one home | Additional property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat or maisonette | £148,475 | £469 | £7,893 |
| Terraced house | £145,980 | £419 | £7,718 |
| Semi-detached | £204,283 | £1,585 | £11,799 |
| Detached | £312,624 | £5,631 | £21,262 |
At these prices, most owner-occupiers in Northern Ireland pay only the 2% band, between £125,001 and £250,000. The detached average, £312,624, is the only one to pay 5% on part of the price.
Why Belfast is not like Edinburgh or Cardiff
Scotland replaced SDLT in 2015 and Wales in 2018, each with its own bands and its own revenue authority. Northern Ireland kept SDLT, so everything on the SDLT calculator and the England pages of this site applies in Belfast, from the first-time buyer cliff at £500,000 to the refund of the surcharge when an old home sells within 3 years. A Belfast price compared with Glasgow shows how much the Scottish rules change at similar prices.