Cost of buying a house calculator

A home purchase in the UK costs the purchase price plus four groups of charges. A transfer tax comes first, and its rates depend on the nation where the home stands. Next is the fee for registering the new owner, called the Land Registry fee in England and Wales. Then comes conveyancing, the legal work of a solicitor or licensed conveyancer, with searches and other disbursements paid through the firm. Last are a survey and any mortgage fees, which follow no published scale. For a £300,000 home bought by someone moving house, tax and registration total £5,150 in England, £5,210 in Scotland, £4,650 in Wales and £5,535 in Northern Ireland. The Scottish and Northern Irish totals also include a fee for registering the mortgage.

This cost of buying a house calculator reproduces published examples from HMRC, Revenue Scotland, the Welsh Revenue Authority and HM Land Registry, listed with the checked results. Rates are those in force when checked on 7 October 2026, and any Budget can change them.

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is charged by HMRC on homes bought in England and in Northern Ireland, and most people still call it stamp duty.

SDLT falls on the chargeable consideration, normally the price paid. Since 1 April 2025 its residential tax bands charge each slice of the price at its own rate (HMRC).

HMRC's £295,000 example pays nothing on the first £125,000, 2% of the next £125,000 (£2,500) and 5% of the last £45,000 (£2,250). That is £4,750, rounded down to the pound as SDLT always is.

Pages quoting a £250,000 nil band, or first-time buyer relief up to £425,000, show temporary thresholds that ended on 31 March 2025.

Not on the first £300,000 in England or Northern Ireland. First-time buyer relief charges 0% up to there and 5% on the rest up to £500,000 (Finance Act 2003, Schedule 6ZA). At £300,000 it saves £5,000.

Above £500,000 the relief vanishes and standard rates apply to the whole price: £10,000 of tax at £500,000, £15,000 one pound higher.

Every buyer must never have owned a home, in the UK or abroad, and must make the home their only or main residence. One joint buyer who has owned before removes the relief.

Scotland raises the LBTT nil band from £145,000 to £175,000 for first-time buyers, saving at most £600 at any price (Revenue Scotland). Wales has no such relief.

Keeping one home while buying another brings in the higher rates for additional dwellings. Since 31 October 2024 they add 5 percentage points to every SDLT band, up from 3 (HMRC).

HMRC's example of a £300,000 second home pays £20,000, £15,000 of it from the surcharge. Prices under £40,000 escape it; one joint buyer keeping another home triggers it.

Replacing a main residence is the exception: no surcharge when the old home sold in the 3 years before, and a refund when it sells within 3 years after.

Scotland charges the Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) instead: 8% of the whole price since 5 December 2024, so £24,000 on £300,000 (Revenue Scotland). Its replacement window is 36 months.

Wales has its own higher rates table, from 5% on the first £180,000 to 17% at the top (Welsh Government). These rates do not apply when the buyer's last main home was sold on or before the day of purchase.

Buyers present in the UK for under 183 days in the 12 months before buying also pay the non-UK resident surcharge. Since 1 April 2021 it adds 2 points to every SDLT rate, relief rates included (HMRC). At £300,000 that is £6,000, refundable after 183 days in the UK within the next year.

Scotland and Wales levy their own taxes in place of SDLT. Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) goes to Revenue Scotland, and Land Transaction Tax (LTT) to the Welsh Revenue Authority.

Both taxes slice the price like SDLT. Revenue Scotland's £235,000 example pays £1,800, and the Welsh Government's £280,000 example £3,300. LBTT and the ADS round down to the pound; no Welsh rounding rule was found, so LTT is shown to the penny.

Conveyancing, the legal transfer of ownership, is carried out by a solicitor or a licensed conveyancer. The fee usually carries VAT on top, and the firm passes on disbursements, chiefly searches with the council, the water company and other bodies.

No national scale sets the legal fee, search charges or the price of a survey, the buyer's own inspection of the building. Each is entered from a quote.

Registration, by contrast, follows statutory scales. HM Land Registry charges £150 through its portal on a price from £200,001 to £500,000, or £330 on paper (HM Land Registry). A mortgage lodged with the transfer adds nothing.

Registers of Scotland charges £530 on £300,000 to register the disposition, the deed of transfer. A standard security, the Scottish mortgage deed, adds £80, or £60 digitally (Registers of Scotland (Fees) Amendment Order 2021).

In Northern Ireland, Land and Property Services charges £445 for a transfer above £250,000 and £90 for a mortgage charge, both lodged electronically (Land Registry (Fees) Order (Northern Ireland) 2014).

A mortgage brings its own charges: the lender's arrangement fee, a mortgage valuation to check the home is worth the loan, and sometimes a broker's fee. No scale sets them, so they go in as one figure from the offer and any broker's terms.

An arrangement fee added to the loan is not paid upfront, but interest then runs on it, as monthly repayments show.

The deposit is not a cost. It is the share of the price paid from the buyer's own money, and it can earn interest while being saved.

At £400,000, tax and registration run from £5,150 for a first-time buyer in England to £46,090 for an additional home in Scotland. Each figure assumes a mortgage and no quotes.

An English mover pays £10,000 in tax: nothing on the first £125,000, 2% of the next £125,000 (£2,500) and 5% of the last £150,000 (£7,500). With the relief the tax drops to £5,000, while keeping another home lifts it to £30,000.

Scotland's LBTT is £13,350, plus £32,000 of ADS on an additional home. Wales charges £10,500 of LTT whether or not the buyer has owned before.

Most costs fall around two dates: exchange of contracts, when the sale becomes binding, and completion, when the price is paid and the keys change hands. In Scotland the binding step is the conclusion of missives.

1. Before exchange: the survey, the valuation and the searches.
2. At exchange: the deposit, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
3. At completion: the rest of the price, the legal bill and the money for the tax.
4. After completion: the return and tax within 14 days for SDLT (HMRC), or 30 days for LBTT and LTT, then registration.