Last updated on January 15th, 2025 at 04:50 pm

Caroline Murray

At present, no stamp duty is payable on any property or land where the cost is less than £250,000.  After that it is 5% on £250,001 to £925,000, then 10% on £925,001 to £1.5 million and 12% on anything over £1.5 million.

If you’re buying a second home, you’ll have to pay 5% more on top of these rates. So, if you buy a property for £250,001, you’ll pay 10%. If it costs £925,001, you’ll pay 15%, and so on.

From 1 April 2025, standard stamp duty will increase to:

Again, second homes will attract a 5 percent increase on these bands.

It’s felt that first time buyers will probably suffer the worst, making it more difficult for them to get on the property ladder.  Currently, first time buyers pay no stamp duty on any property up to £425,000 and then 5% on anything after that up to £625,000.  Anything above that attracts stamp duty at the current standard rates.

For first time buyers, from 1 April 2025, SDLT is changing to 0% on anything up to £300,000, 5% on anything above that and up to £500,000 and standard stamp duty rates on anything above £500,000.

Caroline Murray, partner and head of Graysons’ property team says:

“If you want to avoid the increases, you’ll need to complete your property transaction on or before 31 March.  After that, the increased rates will apply.  While that does seem quite a long way away, on average, residential property transactions do take 12 – 16 weeks to complete.  There may still be time to beat the increase if you hurry, particularly if you have already started your purchase transaction.”

Contact our property experts now if you wish to discuss a property transaction and want to find out if it is likely you can complete before the changes take place.

Author: Caroline Murray, partner and head of property.