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Stamp duty on a £250,000 property
£250,000 is the price where both the English and the Scottish tables step up from 2% to 5%.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
On a £250,000 home, a buyer with no other property pays £2,500 of Stamp Duty Land Tax in England and Northern Ireland: nothing on the first £125,000 and 2% on the remaining £125,000. Until 31 March 2025 the same purchase cost £0, because the nil band then reached £250,000. In Scotland the bill is £2,100 of LBTT, or £1,500 for a first-time buyer, and in Wales £1,500 of Land Transaction Tax, the only part being the £25,000 above the Welsh nil band. The price is a corner in several tables at once. The English 2% band and the Scottish 2% band both end exactly here, so the next pound costs 5% in each, and the second band of the Welsh higher rates also stops at £250,000. A first-time buyer in England pays £0; a landlord pays £15,000.
More options: commercial property, company relief
Stamp Duty Land Tax · England and Northern Ireland
£2,500
1% of £250,000 · rule applied: Standard residential rates
| Portion | Rate | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| £0 to £125,000 | 0% | £0 |
| £125,000 to £250,000 | 2% | £2,500 |
Return and payment due within 14 days of completion.
Same purchase elsewhere in the UK
Several band tables turn at £250,000
Property taxes in the UK work by slices: each rate applies only to the part of the price inside its band (how the slices work). That makes the points where bands meet worth knowing, and £250,000 is one in three separate tables. In England the 2% slice that began at £125,001 ends here. Scotland’s 2% slice, which began at £145,001, ends at the same pound. For a Welsh second home, the 8.5% slice of the higher rates stops here too.
Wales is the exception for a buyer of an only home: its 6% band runs from £225,001 to £400,000, so nothing changes at this price. The table gives the rate on the last £1,000 below the line and on the first £1,000 above it.
| Buyer | Rate just below £250,000 | Rate just above |
|---|---|---|
| England & NI, only home | 2% | 5% |
| England & NI, additional property | 7% | 10% |
| Scotland, only home | 2% | 5% |
| Wales, only home | 6% | 6% |
| Wales, additional property | 8.5% | 10% |
In money, an offer of £255,000 instead of £250,000 adds £250 in England, £250 in Scotland and £300 in Wales. The higher rate never reaches back to the pounds below the line, and there is no cliff here like the one first-time buyers in England face at £500,000. Pushing a seller down to exactly £250,000 saves only the tax on the difference.
What 1 April 2025 changed at this price
From 23 September 2022 to 31 March 2025, England’s nil band was wider and ran to £250,000. A buyer at £250,000 then paid £0 on an only home. The return to a £125,000 nil band created a 2% slice of £125,000, which is where today’s £2,500 comes from. The first-time buyer nil band also shrank, from £425,000 to £300,000, but both versions cover this price in full.
| Buyer | Until 31 March 2025 | From 1 April 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-time buyer | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| Only home or moving home | £0 | £2,500 | £2,500 |
| Additional property | £12,500 | £15,000 | £2,500 |
The April 2025 changes page runs the comparison at other prices, from the HMRC table of the old rates.
Homes around £250,000
The UK House Price Index for July 2026 places the average home in Leeds at £247,695 and in Manchester at £252,309, either side of this price. In Leeds, an only home at the average costs £2,453; in Manchester, £2,615, with the part above £250,000 already taxed at 5%. North of the border, a first-time buyer at £250,000 pays £1,500 of LBTT, the relief having taken its full £600 off the standard bill.