Second home stamp duty calculator
Work out the tax on a second home, buy-to-let or holiday let anywhere in the UK, and see when the surcharge can be claimed back.
Rates taken from the official source and last checked on 1 August 2026.
Why second homes cost so much more
Buy a home you already have one of, anywhere in the UK, and the tax rises steeply. In England and Northern Ireland a 5% surcharge is added to every band, including the tax-free one, so it applies to the whole price. Scotland's Additional Dwelling Supplement works the same way at 8%, the steepest in the UK. Wales swaps in an entirely separate higher-rate table with its own thresholds.
On a £300,000 purchase that means £20,000 in England or Northern Ireland against £5,000 for a main home, £28,600 in Scotland, and £19,950 in Wales. The calculator above shows your own numbers, and unticking the box shows what the same purchase costs as a main residence.
When the surcharge does not apply
Purchases under £40,000 escape it everywhere. So does replacing your main residence: selling your old home and buying the new one in the normal order is a straight swap, even if you own a buy-to-let besides. The surcharge bites when you complete on the new home while still owning the old one, and that overlap is often unavoidable in a slow market.
Which leads to the part most people miss: pay the surcharge on an overlap, sell the old home within the time limit (3 years in England and Wales, 36 months in Scotland), and the surcharge comes back. The refund page covers eligibility and what you would get.
On avoiding it
Searches about avoiding the surcharge outnumber searches about paying it, so here is the honest list. Genuine routes: buy under £40,000, replace your main residence properly, or claim the refund after an overlap. Everything else you will read about, buying through a company (which pays the surcharge too, plus its own rules), splitting title, or creative declarations about which home is "main", either fails on the facts, costs more than it saves, or is the kind of scheme HMRC unwinds with interest and penalties attached. The surcharge is legislation, and the refund route is the relief parliament actually provided.
Common questions
How much stamp duty will I pay on a second home?
The standard bill for the nation plus the whole-price surcharge: 5% of the full price in England and Northern Ireland, 8% in Scotland, and in Wales a separate higher-rate table. On £300,000 that comes to £20,000, £28,600 and £19,950 respectively.
How long do I have to sell my old house to get the surcharge back?
3 years from buying the new home in England, Northern Ireland and Wales; 36 months in Scotland for purchases from April 2024. Sell inside the window and you claim the surcharge element back from the tax authority, free, no claims company needed.
Does the surcharge apply to buy-to-let?
Yes, identically. The test is ending the day owning more than one dwelling, and the purpose does not matter. A first-ever purchase made as a buy-to-let escapes the surcharge, because there is no other property, but loses first-time buyer relief instead.
Can I add the stamp duty to my mortgage?
Only indirectly: the tax is due at completion in cash, so borrowing more against the property to free up the cash amounts to the same thing. It raises your loan-to-value, which can move you into a worse mortgage rate band, and you pay interest on the tax for the whole term.
Is a holiday let treated as a second home?
For this tax, yes. Any additional dwelling attracts the surcharge whatever you plan to do with it. Council tax and business rates treat holiday lets differently, but the purchase tax does not.