Stamp Duty Land Tax is published as a single set of bands, which makes it look like one number. It is not. Two surcharges sit on top of those bands, and between them they decide most of what a buyer at the top of the market actually pays. On a £10,000,000 house the tax runs from £1,113,750 to £1,813,750 depending only on who is signing, a spread of £700,000 on an identical deed.
How this was calculated, and from what
Every figure on this page is computed from the bands HM Revenue and Customs publishes for residential property in England and Northern Ireland, read from gov.uk on 5 August 2026. The bands are nil up to £125,000, 2 percent to £250,000, 5 percent to £925,000, 10 percent to £1.5 million and 12 percent above it. Two surcharges then apply. A buyer who will own more than one dwelling pays, in the government’s own words, 5 percent on top of SDLT rates. A buyer who is not UK resident for stamp duty purposes pays a further 2 percent, and the guidance is explicit that this one applies on top of all other residential rates including the zero rate. That last detail is what makes the arithmetic counterintuitive, and it is the part summaries usually get wrong.
The surcharges are not top slices. Because both attach to the whole consideration rather than to the portion above a threshold, they are flat percentages of the purchase price, which is why the effective rate climbs smoothly rather than stepping. The calculation here is our own arithmetic on the published rates, and the script that produces it refetches both government pages on every run and refuses to build if the wording it depends on has changed.
What the same house costs three buyers
| Purchase price | Standard buyer | Second home | Non-resident second home | Gap | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £500,000 | £15,000 | £40,000 | £50,000 | £35,000 | 10.0% |
| £925,000 | £36,250 | £82,500 | £101,000 | £64,750 | 10.9% |
| £1,500,000 | £93,750 | £168,750 | £198,750 | £105,000 | 13.2% |
| £2,000,000 | £153,750 | £253,750 | £293,750 | £140,000 | 14.7% |
| £5,000,000 | £513,750 | £763,750 | £863,750 | £350,000 | 17.3% |
| £10,000,000 | £1,113,750 | £1,613,750 | £1,813,750 | £700,000 | 18.1% |
The gap is a flat percentage, and that is the surprising part
At £500,000 the standard charge is £15,000 and the non-resident second-home charge is £50,000, a gap of £35,000. At £10,000,000 the same two figures are £1,113,750 and £1,813,750, a gap of £700,000. The gap has grown twentyfold because it is 7 percent of the price in both cases: 5 for the additional dwelling and 2 for non-residence. Nothing about the surcharges is progressive. They are a flat levy that happens to be described alongside a progressive table.
The effective rate does still climb, from 10.0 percent at £500,000 to 18.1 percent at £10,000,000, but that rise comes entirely from the underlying bands rather than from the surcharges. The top marginal rate, for a non-resident buying an additional dwelling above £1.5 million, is 19 percent: the 12 percent top band plus both surcharges.
Two things this table does not include
First-time buyer relief is not modelled here. It raises the nil-rate threshold and cannot be combined with the additional-dwelling surcharge in any case, because a first-time buyer by definition is not acquiring a second dwelling. Second, the non-resident surcharge is refundable in defined circumstances: HM Revenue and Customs allows a claim where the buyer subsequently meets the residence test, and a buyer replacing a main residence is not liable for the 5 percent additional-dwelling charge at all. Both are conditions on the buyer rather than on the property, which is the point this page is making.
This piece is part of our property reference, What a British House Costs to Hold: Official Prices, by Region and by Borough, which sets out the method and collects every figure we have published on the subject. Also in it: England’s House Prices Rose 2.3 Percent. Kensington and Chelsea Fell 10.7. Westminster Fell 22.8., The Cheapest Parts of Britain Are Rising Fastest. The Most Expensive Is the Only One Falling., Every London Borough, Ranked: 20 of 33 Fell, and the Worst Is Not the Most Expensive, Flats Are the Weakest Property Type in All 13 UK Regions. In England They Fell 2.2 Percent While Detached Rose 2.5., The Top Third of US Housing Lagged the Bottom in 65% of Metros. In the Biggest 25, It Led..
Sources
Rates and both surcharges were read from HM Revenue and Customs on 5 August 2026: the residential rate bands and the additional-dwelling surcharge from the SDLT residential property rates page, and the non-resident surcharge from the guidance on rates for non-UK residents. Both are the government’s own publications and are the primary source for this tax; no calculator, agency or law firm summary was used.
Every pound figure in the table is our own arithmetic on those published rates, not a quoted example. The build script fetches both pages each time it runs and checks that the specific wording the calculation depends on is still present, including the phrase stating that the non-resident surcharge applies on top of all other residential rates. If that wording changes, the script stops rather than publishing a stale table. Stamp duty applies to England and Northern Ireland only; Scotland and Wales levy their own transaction taxes at different rates.
Frequently asked questions
How much is stamp duty on a second home in the UK?
The standard bands plus 5 percent of the whole purchase price. On a £2,000,000 house that is £253,750 against £153,750 for a buyer who will own only one dwelling, computed from the rates HM Revenue and Customs published on 5 August 2026. The surcharge is not charged only on the portion above a threshold, which is why it adds so much at every price.
Do non-UK residents pay more stamp duty?
Yes, a further 2 percent, and the guidance states it applies on top of all other residential rates including the zero rate. A non-resident buying an additional dwelling at £5,000,000 pays £863,750 against £513,750 for a UK-resident buyer with no other property. The surcharge can be reclaimed if the buyer later meets the residence test set out in the same guidance.
What is the highest rate of stamp duty in England?
19 percent at the margin, reached by a non-UK resident buying an additional dwelling for more than £1.5 million: the 12 percent top band, plus the 5 percent additional-dwelling surcharge, plus the 2 percent non-resident surcharge. That is a marginal rate rather than an average one. The effective rate on the whole price at £10,000,000 is 18.1 percent, because the lower bands are still charged at their own rates underneath it.