Stamp Duty for Property Investors in 2026: Rates, Surcharges and the Reliefs That Remain
An investor buying a home to let in England pays Stamp Duty Land Tax at the higher rates, which are five percentage points above the standard rates on every band. A company buying a home worth more than £500,000 can face a flat 17% unless it qualifies for a relief, and a non-UK resident buyer pays a further two percentage points on residential property. Commercial and mixed-use purchases sit on a separate, much lower scale, with a top rate of 5%.
So the biggest stamp duty decision an investor makes is often not the price but the shape of the deal: residential or mixed, one transaction or several, a company or an individual. This guide sets out the current rates, the surcharges and the reliefs that still exist after Multiple Dwellings Relief was abolished.
Residential rates in 2026
These rates have applied since 1 April 2025. Each rate applies only to the slice of the price within its band.
| Portion of the price | Standard rate | Higher rate (additional dwellings) | Higher rate plus non-resident surcharge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to £125,000 | 0% | 5% | 7% |
| £125,001 to £250,000 | 2% | 7% | 9% |
| £250,001 to £925,000 | 5% | 10% | 12% |
| £925,001 to £1.5 million | 10% | 15% | 17% |
| Above £1.5 million | 12% | 17% | 19% |
The higher rates for additional dwellings
The surcharge rose from three to five percentage points for transactions from 31 October 2024. It applies when an individual will own more than one residential property at the end of the day of purchase and is not replacing a main residence, and to companies buying any dwelling. Purchases under £40,000 are outside it.
If you buy a new main home before selling the old one, you pay the higher rates and can claim the surcharge back if you sell the previous main home within three years. The refund claim has to be made within 12 months of the sale or of the filing date of the return, whichever is later.
The 17% rate for companies
A company or other "non-natural person" buying a dwelling for more than £500,000 pays a single flat rate of 17% on the whole price, up from 15% for transactions from 31 October 2024. The flat rate does not apply, and the company pays the ordinary higher rates instead, where the property is used for a qualifying purpose. HMRC's list includes:
- a property rental business (letting to unconnected people on commercial terms)
- property developers and traders buying to develop or resell
- a trade that opens the property to the public
- homes for the company's employees in qualifying cases
These reliefs are withdrawn if the use changes within a set period, for example if a connected person lives in the property. The Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings works on similar lines; we cover it in our guide to buying property through a company.
The non-resident surcharge
Since 1 April 2021, non-UK resident buyers pay two percentage points more on residential property in England and Northern Ireland. An individual is non-resident for this test if they were in the UK for fewer than 183 days in the 12 months before the purchase. A refund is available if they then spend at least 183 days in the UK in a continuous 365-day period within the window set by HMRC. A company is non-resident if it is not UK resident for corporation tax, and some UK companies controlled from abroad are treated as non-resident too.
The surcharge does not apply to non-residential or mixed-use purchases.
Commercial and mixed-use rates
| Portion of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £150,000 | 0% |
| £150,001 to £250,000 | 2% |
| Above £250,000 | 5% |
New leases pay 1% on the net present value of rent between £150,001 and £5 million and 2% above that, plus the scale above on any premium.
These rates apply to offices, shops, industrial units and land, and to mixed-use purchases, such as a shop with a flat above, where the property includes genuine non-residential elements. The garden or grounds of a house count as residential, so a home on a big plot is not mixed use just because the land is large. Take advice before relying on a mixed-use claim.
Multiple Dwellings Relief: gone, and what replaced it
Multiple Dwellings Relief let a buyer of several homes pay stamp duty on the average price per dwelling. It was abolished for transactions completing on or after 1 June 2024. Contracts exchanged on or before 6 March 2024 can still claim it if they are not varied.
One rule survives: when six or more dwellings are bought in a single transaction, the buyer can treat the purchase as non-residential and use the commercial scale above. For a block of flats bought in one go, that is often the cheapest route.
Worked example
Illustrative example only, with round numbers.
An investor buys a £2,000,000 property. The SDLT under each route:
| Buyer and property | SDLT |
|---|---|
| UK individual, first and only home | £153,750 |
| UK individual, additional dwelling (higher rates) | £253,750 |
| Non-UK resident individual, additional dwelling | £293,750 |
| Company, no relief (17% flat rate) | £340,000 |
| Company running a qualifying rental business (higher rates) | £253,750 |
| Same price, mixed-use building (commercial scale) | £89,500 |
The higher-rate figure is the standard £153,750 plus 5% of £2,000,000. The mixed-use figure is 2% of £100,000 plus 5% of £1,750,000.
Who pays what, and the pitfalls
| Buyer | Rates that apply | Common pitfall |
|---|---|---|
| Individual buying a second home or a buy-to-let | Higher rates (+5 points) | Buying a new main home first and missing the three-year window to sell the old one |
| Company buying a dwelling over £500,000 | 17% unless a relief applies | Claiming relief then letting a director's family live there |
| Non-UK resident buyer | Higher rates plus 2 points | Counting days in England only; days anywhere in the UK count |
| Buyer of six or more dwellings in one transaction | Non-residential scale available | Splitting the purchase into separate contracts |
| Buyer of a mixed-use building | Non-residential scale | Treating land that is really garden as commercial |
| Developer buying land for a scheme | Non-residential scale if no dwelling exists | A house on the site that is still suitable for use as a home usually makes it residential |
Stamp duty is a development cost
For a developer, stamp duty is one line in the appraisal, and it changes the land price you can afford. A site with an existing house bought for redevelopment, a commercial building bought for conversion, and a block of flats bought for refurbishment are taxed very differently. Our development feasibility and site appraisal work puts the purchase costs, build cost and value side by side, and our guide to GDV and residual land value shows how they feed into what a site is worth.
Owners looking at higher-value homes in London should also note the High Value Council Tax Surcharge, announced at Budget 2025, which will add an annual charge on residential property in England valued at over £2 million from April 2028.
If you are buying to develop, convert or refurbish, our property development and commercial to residential conversion teams can look at the site before you commit, and the free Investor & Developer guide explains how we work with investors.
