By price
Stamp duty on a £125,000 property
£125,000 is the last price at which an English home buyer pays nothing, and the first where a landlord already pays in full.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
At £125,000, a buyer who will own only this home pays no property purchase tax anywhere in the UK. In England and Northern Ireland the price sits exactly on the top of the Stamp Duty Land Tax nil band, so the bill is £0, and the very next pound would be taxed at 2%. Scotland’s nil band runs further, to £145,000, and Wales leaves everything up to £225,000 untaxed, so both charge £0 with room to spare. The answer changes for anyone keeping another home. A second home or buy-to-let at this price costs £6,250 in England, because the higher rates add 5% even to the band that is normally free, £6,250 in Wales at the higher rates and £10,000 in Scotland, where the Additional Dwelling Supplement takes 8% of the whole price. A buyer who spent fewer than 183 days in the UK over the past year pays £2,500 in England, even on an only home.
More options: commercial property, company relief
Stamp Duty Land Tax · England and Northern Ireland
£0
0% of £125,000 · rule applied: Standard residential rates
| Portion | Rate | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| £0 to £125,000 | 0% | £0 |
Return and payment due within 14 days of completion.
Same purchase elsewhere in the UK
The last pound of the English nil band
Stamp Duty Land Tax charges nothing on the first £125,000 of a residential price. At £125,000 the whole price fits in that slice, so a buyer of an only home writes a cheque of £0. Add £10,000 and the bill becomes £200, because each pound above the line is charged at 2%. That rate holds all the way to £250,000, which keeps the climb gentle.
The other two nations draw their zero line higher. Revenue Scotland taxes nothing up to £145,000, and the Welsh Revenue Authority nothing up to £225,000. A buyer in Wales could spend another £100,000 on top of this price and still pay no Land Transaction Tax. England’s band was also wider before 1 April 2025; the SDLT rates page keeps both tables.
| Price | England & NI | Scotland | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|
| £125,000 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| £135,000 | £200 | £0 | £0 |
| £145,000 | £400 | £0 | £0 |
| £155,000 | £600 | £200 | £0 |
| £165,000 | £800 | £400 | £0 |
Nothing for a home, a full bill for a second one
The nil band only protects buyers on the standard rates. Someone who will own two dwellings worth £40,000 or more at the end of completion day pays the higher rates, which lift every band by 5%. The free slice becomes a 5% slice, and the whole £125,000 is taxed: £6,250.
Wales reaches the same figure by another route. Its higher rates are a separate table that starts at 5% and runs to £180,000, so £125,000 costs £6,250. Scotland adds the Additional Dwelling Supplement at 8% of the full price, giving £10,000, the highest of the three. A company pays these surcharges on its very first dwelling, as the table shows.
| Buyer | England & NI | Scotland | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Only home, or moving home | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| Additional property | £6,250 | £10,000 | £6,250 |
| Non-UK resident, only home | £2,500 | £0 | £0 |
| Limited company | £6,250 | £10,000 | £6,250 |
Overseas buyers face one more layer in England and Northern Ireland only: the non-resident surcharge of 2% applies on top of whichever table is used, nil band included. Scotland and Wales have no equivalent.
Where £125,000 buys a home
On the UK House Price Index for July 2026, the average home in Aberdeen sold for £130,689, within a few thousand pounds of this price. The average flat in Wales cost £128,586 and the average flat in Northern Ireland £148,475. Buyers of those homes as a main residence pay nothing; buyers adding them to a portfolio pay the figures above.
New leases and a second £125,000 line
The same amount appears elsewhere in the SDLT rules. When a new residential lease is granted, tax is also due on the rent: 1% of the net present value of the rent above £125,000. See GOV.UK on residential rates for the rules.