Second Home Stamp Duty Calculator 2026 — What the 5% Surcharge Really Costs
Buying a second home in England or Northern Ireland adds a 5% surcharge to every stamp duty band — on a £300,000 purchase that's £20,000 in tax, not the £5,000 a home-mover pays. Enter the price below for the exact figure with the band-by-band working shown, ungated. Rates verified against HMRC (gov.uk), in force since 1 April 2025.
This check runs on screen, no signup. The full property report is £9.99 Lite / £24.99 Complete — one report, one price, no subscription.
How the 5% second-home surcharge works
If a purchase in England or Northern Ireland means you'll own more than one dwelling and the price is £40,000 or more, SDLT is charged at the higher rates — 5 percentage points on top of every standard band, including the first £125,000 that a home-mover pays nothing on. The surcharge rose from 3% to 5% on 31 October 2024 and applies whether the property is a holiday home, a buy-to-let or simply a second base.
| Portion of price | Standard rate | Second home / additional property |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £125,000 | 0% | 5% |
| £125,001 – £250,000 | 2% | 7% |
| £250,001 – £925,000 | 5% | 10% |
| £925,001 – £1.5m | 10% | 15% |
| Above £1.5m | 12% | 17% |
Worked example — the full arithmetic
A £300,000 second home: 5% on the first £125,000 (£6,250) + 7% on the next £125,000 (£8,750) + 10% on the final £50,000 (£5,000) = £20,000. The same house bought as a replacement main home: £0 + £2,500 + £2,500 = £5,000. The surcharge alone is £15,000 — the extra this purchase costs you over a home-mover.
When you DON'T pay the surcharge
- Replacing your main residence — gov.uk's exemption: you'll use the new property as your main home and you've sold or given away your last main home before you buy. Standard rates apply.
- Purchases under £40,000 — below the minimum consideration, the higher rates don't apply at all.
The 3-year refund rule
Bought before your old main home sold, and paid the higher rates? Sell the previous main residence within 3 years of the new purchase and you can reclaim the surcharge from HMRC — the claim must go in within 12 months of that sale. (gov.uk, verified July 2026.)
Buying at a distance? That's exactly when to check the house
Second-home buyers are often buying somewhere they've viewed once or twice, far from home. The checks locals do by instinct — does that road flood, is the area on old mine workings, what does the street actually sell for — are exactly what a remote buyer misses. Run the house check on the postcode, and see the flood, ground stability and coal mining checks individually. The Complete report (£24.99) compiles 15+ checks on the exact address from official sources — a small line item next to the tax bill this page just calculated.
What this calculator cannot tell you
It computes SDLT at the published rates — it is not tax advice, not a valuation and not a survey. Complex cases (trusts, mixed-use property, purchases by companies over £500,000, overseas buyers) have extra rules: confirm with a conveyancer or HMRC. Scotland (LBTT) and Wales (LTT) are separate taxes and out of scope. Rates are pinned to a dated gov.uk source shown beneath your result.
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