Stamp Duty for UK Landlords 2026

Stamp Duty Land Tax has moved further away from landlords every year since 2014. The current position is harsher than at any point in living memory — the additional rate sits at 5%, the thresholds have shrunk back to pre-pandemic levels, and the rules around company purchases now bite harder than the individual ones for higher-value properties.

This guide covers stamp duty landlords UK 2026 — the current bands, how the 5% surcharge works, when you can claim it back, what SDLT looks like for portfolio incorporation, the niche cases for landlord families, and where mixed-use properties sit.

SDLT bands in 2026

Two sets of bands apply. The standard rates are what an owner-occupier pays on their only home. The surcharged rates are what a landlord, second-home buyer, or non-resident individual usually pays.

The bands above reflect the position from 1 April 2025, when the temporary nil-rate band above £250,000 reverted to £125,000. The 5% additional rate has been in force since 31 October 2024 — before that, the surcharge was 3%.

For non-UK resident individuals, a further 2% surcharge applies on top, taking the top band to 19%. The non-resident rules use a 183-day test that is narrower than the income tax statutory residence test, so it is possible to be UK resident for income tax but non-resident for SDLT.

The HMRC calculator at Stamp Duty Land Tax: residential property rates runs the numbers for any purchase.

How the 5% additional rate applies

The surcharge applies if, at the end of the day of completion, the buyer owns more than one residential property. "Owns" includes:

• Properties anywhere in the world, not just the UK.
• Properties owned through trusts where the buyer is a beneficiary with rights to occupy.
• Inherited shares of property — a 50% share counts as ownership of the whole property for surcharge purposes, except for inherited shares of 50% or less held for less than three years.

The £40,000 floor matters. If the new purchase is worth less than £40,000, no SDLT return is needed and no surcharge applies. Above £40,000, the surcharge applies on the full purchase price, not just the part above £40,000.

The buy to let stamp duty position is straightforward: every buy-to-let purchase carries the surcharge unless the buyer genuinely has no other residential property anywhere in the world.

Mixed transactions and multiple dwellings

Where one transaction includes more than one dwelling, the rules get more involved.

• Multiple Dwellings Relief (MDR) was abolished on 1 June 2024 for most transactions. Before that, buyers of two or more dwellings in a single transaction could elect to apply SDLT to the average price per dwelling. That route is gone.
• Six or more dwellings still qualify for the non-residential SDLT rates, which are usually lower. A landlord buying a six-flat block typically pays the non-residential rates rather than the residential surcharged rates.
• Mixed-use properties (a shop with a flat above, a pub with letting rooms) use non-residential rates throughout. The 5% surcharge does not apply. HMRC has tightened the interpretation since 2022 — the non-residential portion has to be genuine and substantial. A garden with public footpath access does not turn a house into mixed use.

The shift away from MDR has made some portfolio purchases noticeably more expensive. A buyer acquiring three flats in one block for £900,000 used to average each one at £300,000 and apply the surcharged rates per flat. Today the full £900,000 goes through one set of surcharged rates, which is materially more.

Refund routes when selling your main home

A landlord who is buying a new main home while keeping an old buy-to-let can pay the surcharge on completion and claim it back later. The rules:

• The new property must be your only or main residence (you have to actually move in).
• You must sell the previous main residence within three years of completing on the new one.
• You claim the refund within 12 months of selling the old home, or 12 months of the original SDLT filing deadline, whichever is later.

The same rule covers buyers who complete on the new home before they manage to sell the old one in a chain that breaks. Pay the surcharge up front, claim it back when the old home eventually sells.

You cannot claim the refund if the previous main home is sold more than three years after the new one is bought, except in very limited circumstances (such as the sale being prevented by government action). The three-year clock has no flexibility for ordinary market reasons.

The refund route is also closed if you keep the previous main home as a let. You only get the refund if the old main home is genuinely sold.

SDLT on incorporating a portfolio

A landlord who decides to move their individual portfolio into a limited company faces a substantial SDLT bill. The transfer is a sale for SDLT purposes, even though it is between a landlord and a company they own.

Each property in the portfolio is treated as a separate transaction at market value. The 5% additional rate applies. For properties over £500,000, the 17% flat enveloped dwellings rate may apply where the property is to be occupied by a person connected to the company.

A worked example: a landlord with five properties, each worth £250,000 on average, moves them all into a limited company. The total SDLT bill is roughly:

• £250,000 × 5 properties = £1,250,000 of value transferred.
• Each property: surcharged SDLT on £250,000 = around £15,000.
• Total: roughly £75,000 of SDLT.

That is before legal fees, lender fees on refinancing existing mortgages onto company products, and CGT on any gain over the period of personal ownership.

A partial relief applies where the portfolio is genuinely run as a partnership and the partnership is incorporated. Incorporation Relief under Section 162 TCGA gives CGT relief in many cases, but SDLT relief is much narrower and requires evidence of a genuine partnership for the years before incorporation. HMRC has challenged partnership-into-company SDLT relief claims aggressively in recent tribunals.

First-time buyer relief edge cases

First-time buyer relief gives a 0% rate on the first £300,000 and 5% on the slice between £300,000 and £500,000, with no relief at all if the price is over £500,000. For landlord families this matters in two situations.

• Parent buying a property in their adult child's name as a gift. If the parent provides the deposit but the child is the buyer and will occupy the property, first-time buyer relief usually applies as long as the child meets the definition (never owned a residential property anywhere in the world).
• Joint purchase between a first-time buyer child and a parent who already owns property. Relief is lost because the parent is on the title. The whole transaction is treated as a non-first-time buyer purchase, and the surcharge also applies if the parent owns another residential property.

The cleanest answer for a parent helping a child buy is usually to gift cash to the child (no SDLT, possibly seven-year IHT clock starts) rather than going on the title themselves.

Gifts and transfers between family members

A pure gift of property with no consideration is outside SDLT. That sounds simple but has two important wrinkles.

Where the property has a mortgage, "assuming the mortgage" counts as consideration. A spouse gifting half of their house to the other spouse where the receiving spouse takes on £200,000 of the mortgage will trigger SDLT on £200,000 — and the surcharged rate if the receiving spouse owns another property.

Where the gift is between connected parties (parents to children, siblings, cousins) and the donor still benefits from the property, the gift can be ignored for IHT purposes under the gift-with-reservation rules. SDLT is unaffected, but the gift may not save the family any inheritance tax either.

Spouses and civil partners can transfer ownership shares between themselves at no SDLT, provided no debt is assumed. This is the basis for the Form 17 income-splitting strategy used by many landlord couples.

This article is general guidance, not personal tax advice. Speak to a qualified accountant before acting on it.