England & NI
Stamp duty for first-time buyers in England and Northern Ireland
A nil band to £300,000, a cliff at £500,000, and a definition of “first-time” stricter than most buyers expect.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
Since 1 April 2025, a first-time buyer in England or Northern Ireland pays no Stamp Duty Land Tax on the first £300,000 of the price and 5% on the slice between £300,001 and £500,000, so a £400,000 flat costs £5,000 instead of £10,000 at standard rates. The relief is all or nothing: at £500,001 it disappears and the whole price is taxed at standard rates, which adds £5,000 for one extra pound. Every buyer named on the purchase must never have owned a home, or a share of one, anywhere in the world, including one inherited or received as a gift, and must intend to live in the property as their main home. Before April 2025 the same relief ran to £425,000 and £625,000, so the change costs some first-time buyers up to £11,250.
First-time buyer relief on your price
SDLT for a first-time buyer, England or NI
£2,500
| Without the relief | £7,500 |
| Relief saves | £5,000 |
| Under the rates before 1 April 2025 | £0 |
| Same buyer in Scotland / Wales | £7,750 / £7,500 |
The two bands, and the cliff after them
First-time buyer relief does not reduce the rate on the whole price. It replaces the standard table with a shorter one: nothing up to £300,000, then 5% on the portion up to £500,000. Above £500,000 there is no third band. The buyer simply falls back to the ordinary rates, applied from the first pound.
| Portion of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £300,000 | 0% |
| £300,001 to £500,000 | 5% |
The cliff is the part that catches people. At £500,000 a first-time buyer pays £10,000; one pound more and the bill becomes £15,000. In London, where the average first-time buyer price sits close to that line, a few thousand pounds on the offer can mean several thousand more in tax.
| Price | First-time buyer | Standard rates | Scotland, first-time | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £250,000 | £0 | £2,500 | £1,500 | £1,500 |
| £300,000 | £0 | £5,000 | £4,000 | £4,500 |
| £350,000 | £2,500 | £7,500 | £7,750 | £7,500 |
| £400,000 | £5,000 | £10,000 | £12,750 | £10,500 |
| £450,000 | £7,500 | £12,500 | £17,750 | £14,250 |
| £500,000 | £10,000 | £15,000 | £22,750 | £18,000 |
| £500,001 | £15,000 | £15,000 | £22,750 | £18,000 |
| £550,000 | £17,500 | £17,500 | £27,750 | £21,750 |
Who counts as a first-time buyer
The test in Schedule 6ZA of the Finance Act 2003 looks backwards over your whole life. You fail it if you have ever acquired a major interest in a dwelling, alone or with others, in the UK or abroad. A share counts. A home received as a gift counts. A flat inherited from a parent counts, even if you sold it the following month. A lease with less than 21 years to run when you acquired it does not count, and neither does commercial property that never contained a home.
The second condition looks forward: you must intend to occupy the property as your only or main residence. A buy-to-let bought by someone who has never owned a home gets no relief, and in practice it is usually hit by the 5% higher rates later, when the buyer acquires a home of their own.
Buying with someone else
Every purchaser must pass both tests. Two friends buying together lose the relief if one of them owned a studio at university. A parent added to the title deeds to help with the mortgage turns the purchase into a standard-rate one, and usually into an additional-property purchase too, because the parent still owns their own house. A “joint borrower, sole proprietor” mortgage avoids this, because the parent borrows without becoming an owner. The joint purchase calculator shows which buyer decides the rate.
Spouses who are not on the deeds
Here the relief is more generous than the surcharge. If only one spouse buys, HMRC does not ask whether the other spouse owned a home before. The surcharge works the other way round: a spouse’s current property counts as yours. A couple where one partner still owns a flat should therefore expect standard or higher rates, not the relief, whoever signs.
What changed on 1 April 2025
From 23 September 2022 to 31 March 2025 the relief ran to £425,000 with the 5% band up to £625,000. The temporary thresholds lapsed as planned and were not renewed in the Budget of November 2025. A first-time buyer at £425,000 now pays £6,250 instead of nothing, and one at £600,000 pays the full standard bill of £20,000 instead of £8,750. Our page on the April 2025 changes has the full comparison.
Scotland and Wales do it differently
Scotland’s relief is smaller but has no cliff: the nil band of Land and Buildings Transaction Tax rises from £145,000 to £175,000, worth at most £600, at any price (LBTT first-time buyer relief). Wales has no relief at all, but its main nil band already reaches £225,000 for everyone (first-time buyers in Wales). On a £250,000 first home the three nations charge £0, £1,500 and £1,500.
A first purchase worked through
Take a couple who have rented for years and agree to buy a two-bedroom flat for £400,000. Neither has ever owned anything, so both pass the test, and they will live in the flat. The relief replaces the standard table: the first £300,000 is free and the remaining £100,000 pays 5%.
| Band | Amount in band | Rate | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| £0 to £300,000 | £300,000 | 0% | £0 |
| £300,001 to £500,000 | £100,000 | 5% | £5,000 |
| Total | £400,000 | 1.3% | £5,000 |
Without the relief the same flat would cost £10,000, so the relief is worth £5,000 to them. Had one of them inherited a share of a parent’s house more than 3 years ago, they would pay the full amount, and if that share were still owned at completion the purchase would become an additional one at £30,000. The facts about every buyer, not the price, decide which of these three bills arrives.
Claiming it
There is no form to send separately. Your conveyancer ticks the relief on the SDLT return, which must reach HMRC within 14 days of completion, and pays the reduced amount. If the relief was missed, the return can be amended within 12 months of the filing date. HMRC can open a check after completion, so keep evidence that no buyer owned a home before, especially abroad.
Three checks before you offer
- Ask every person who will be on the title whether they have ever owned, inherited or been given a share of a home, in any country.
- If the price is near £500,000, work out the cost of the last few thousand pounds: on this side of the line they are cheap, on the other side they cost the relief.
- If you are not resident in the UK yet, count your days: the non-resident surcharge is added to the first-time buyer rates and can be refunded later.