A buy to let is charged at standard rates if you own no other property
This is the part most landlords get wrong. The higher rates follow how many residential properties you end up owning once the purchase completes, not what the property will be used for. A landlord who owns no other residential property and buys a single property to let out is on the standard rates.
- England and Northern Ireland. gov.uk says the higher rates are due on a purchase of £40,000 or more if all of the following apply: it will not be the only residential property worth £40,000 or more that you own (or part own) anywhere in the world; you have not sold or given away your previous main home; no one else has a lease on it which has more than 21 years left to run. All of them have to apply, so failing the first one is enough to stay on the standard rates.
- Wales. The higher residential rates apply when you buy a residential property worth £40,000 or more and you already own one or more other properties.
- Scotland. ADS does not apply if you only own one dwelling at the end of the effective date. Companies are treated differently: see buying through a company below.
Sources: gov.uk, gov.wales, revenue.scot.
The table below is England and Northern Ireland: the same purchase on standard rates, on the higher rates, and on the higher rates with the non-UK resident surcharge stacked on top.
| Purchase price | Own no other property | Own another property | Own another, non-UK resident |
|---|---|---|---|
| £150,000 | £500 | £8,000 | £11,000 |
| £200,000 | £1,500 | £11,500 | £15,500 |
| £250,000 | £2,500 | £15,000 | £20,000 |
| £300,000 | £5,000 | £20,000 | £26,000 |
What a landlord who already owns a home pays
Which tax applies depends on where the property is, not where the landlord lives. At the prices most rentals change hands at, England and Wales land within a few hundred pounds of each other. Scotland does not.
| Purchase price | England and NI | Wales | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| £150,000 | £8,000 | £7,500 | £12,100 |
| £200,000 | £11,500 | £10,700 | £17,100 |
| £250,000 | £15,000 | £14,950 | £22,100 |
| £300,000 | £20,000 | £19,950 | £28,600 |
Scotland comes out highest at each of these prices. Its Additional Dwelling Supplement is 8% of the purchase price for transactions on or after 5 December 2024, charged on the full price rather than band by band, and it sits on top of the ordinary banded LBTT. England and Northern Ireland add 5% to each SDLT band; Wales uses a separate higher-rate band table rather than an uplift on the standard one. Full guides: SDLT, LTT, LBTT, and the Scottish ADS.
Buying through a company
Scotland treats companies differently from individuals, and the difference is worth knowing before an SPV is set up. revenue.scot says ADS applies to most purchases of residential property in Scotland by non-natural persons, known as non-individuals, for example corporate bodies, companies and certain trusts, even where they have no other residential properties. A company buying its first Scottish rental will generally not get the one-dwelling let-off an individual would.
England, Northern Ireland and Wales charge a company the same way for the same reason: the purchase is treated as an additional dwelling whether or not the company owns another one. England and Northern Ireland then add a rule the other nations do not have, a flat rate on a dwelling over £500,000 bought by a company where no relief is claimed.
Every figure on this page is for a purchase by an individual. The calculator has a company setting, but it is off here. For the company answer in any nation, including the flat rate and the reliefs that keep most SPV landlords off it, use the limited company stamp duty calculator. Trust purchases are still outside what the rulesets cover.
Non-UK resident landlords
The non-UK resident surcharge is 2% on a purchase of £40,000 or more, and it applies on top of all other residential rates, including the higher rates. It is not an alternative to the higher rates: a non-resident landlord buying an additional property pays both, which is the third column of the England and Northern Ireland table above. In the calculator it is the non-UK resident setting, which appears when England or Northern Ireland is selected.
Two things this page leaves out
£40,000 is the floor below which neither the additional-property charge nor the non-UK resident surcharge applies. Every price on this page sits above it, so none of the tables or examples show it. The calculator does apply it, charging the standard rates with no surcharge below £40,000.
Selling a former main home and reclaiming the difference is covered on stamp duty on a second home, which sets out the refund window and claim deadline for each nation.