Stamp duty calculator for investment property
Work out the stamp duty on a buy-to-let or second home in England. We have not asked whether you are moving house, because you are not — every purchase here is an additional property, so the surcharge applies.
Additional-property surcharge of 5% is included. Overseas buyers pay a further 2%.
What you actually pay.
Stamp duty is tiered: each slice of the price is taxed at its own rate, so the headline percentage is never what you pay on the whole purchase. Rates below are for England and Northern Ireland, effective 2 April 2026.
If you are UK resident
Standard rates plus the 5% additional-property surcharge.
| Portion of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £125,000 | 5% |
| £125,000 to £250,000 | 7% |
| £250,000 to £925,000 | 10% |
| £925,000 to £1,500,000 | 15% |
| Above £1,500,000 | 17% |
If you are an overseas buyer
The same, plus the 2% non-resident surcharge — 7% on top of standard rates.
| Portion of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £125,000 | 7% |
| £125,000 to £250,000 | 9% |
| £250,000 to £925,000 | 12% |
| £925,000 to £1,500,000 | 17% |
| Above £1,500,000 | 19% |
Two things people get caught by. A purchase under £40,000 does not attract the additional-property surcharge at all, so there is no stamp duty to pay on it. And "non-resident" is a statutory test, not a question of nationality or where you pay tax — broadly, it turns on whether you were in the UK for at least 183 days in the twelve months around completion. A British passport holder living abroad can be non-resident for this; a foreign national living here may not be. Your solicitor settles it.
How this fits the rest of the cost
Stamp duty is one line in the cash you need, not the whole of it. On a typical purchase you are also budgeting for the deposit, the refurbishment, your solicitor, the survey and the lender's fees. We set the full figure out in the deal pack for the specific property, so you are not assembling it yourself from a calculator and some guesses.
Worth saying plainly: the overseas surcharge is reclaimable in one narrow case. If you later become UK resident — broadly, 183 days in the UK within the twelve months after completion — you can apply to HMRC for a refund of the 2% within two years. Most of our investors never qualify and should not count on it, but if you are moving to the UK anyway it is worth knowing it exists.
This is a calculator, not advice
It covers England and Northern Ireland only. Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales charges Land Transaction Tax, both on different bands. It assumes a freehold or leasehold purchase with no rent element, an individual or company buying an additional residential property, and no relief claimed. Companies buying above £500,000 can face a flat 17% charge where no relief applies.
We are not tax advisers and this is not personalised tax advice. Your solicitor confirms the figure and files the return — which is due within 14 days of completion. Rates change at budgets, so check the date above against gov.uk if you are reading this long after we wrote it.
Want the full cost on a real property?
Send us the one you are looking at and we will set out the deposit, the works, the fees and the stamp duty in one place.