Budget 2026: Stamp Duty Unchanged. Here Is What Did Change for Home Buyers

Did Stamp Duty Change?

No. The Budget on 28 October 2026 made no change to stamp duty rates, thresholds or surcharges for home buyers. HMRC's overview of tax legislation and rates, published on Budget day, lists three Stamp Duty Land Tax measures, and none of them changes what a person pays on buying a home. If you are completing a purchase this week, your stamp duty is the same figure it was last week.

The rates in force in England and Northern Ireland remain the ones set on 1 April 2025:

• 0% up to £125,000, then 2% to £250,000, 5% to £925,000, 10% to £1.5 million and 12% above that
• First-time buyers pay nothing up to £300,000 and 5% from £300,001 to £500,000, with no relief above £500,000
• A 5% surcharge on every band for an additional property, such as a second home or buy to let, from £40,000
• A further 2% for buyers who are not UK resident

Scotland and Wales set their own property taxes, Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Land Transaction Tax, through their own budgets, so a UK Budget does not change them. Check your figure with the stamp duty calculator or see the full 2026 stamp duty rates.

This was the expected outcome. The Prime Minister ruled out a stamp duty change at this Budget on 27 July 2026, and we tracked every proposal and statement in the run-up in Autumn Budget 2026 and Stamp Duty: What Changes on 28 October.

Every Property Measure at a Glance

Taken from the Budget 2026 document and HMRC's overview of tax legislation and rates, both published on 28 October 2026.

Your First Home and Stamp Duty

Your First Home is the Budget's main housing measure. The Treasury has set aside £4.7 billion to help around 70,000 households in England buy a new-build home from April 2027. The details confirmed on 28 October 2026 are:

• A government equity loan of 20% of the price, for first-time buyers who would not otherwise be able to buy
• A minimum deposit of 2.5% and a maximum of 15%
• Household income caps of £110,000 outside London and £140,000 in London
• Price caps set from local authority median prices, with caps of £650,000 in inner London and £500,000 in outer London
• Five years interest free on the equity loan, with charges rising gradually after that
• Developers pay a fee to join, on a sliding scale that is lower for smaller developments

The Budget documents say nothing about stamp duty for the scheme, so the normal rules apply. Stamp duty is charged on the price of the home, and the equity loan is a way of paying that price, not a discount on it. A buyer using Help to Buy, the last equity loan scheme, paid stamp duty on the full price, and nothing published so far suggests Your First Home will work differently.

The inner London gap

First-time buyer relief only applies to purchases of £500,000 or less. Above that, a first-time buyer pays the same stamp duty as anyone else. The outer London cap sits exactly at £500,000, so relief is available across the whole outer London range. The inner London cap of £650,000 is £150,000 higher, and every inner London purchase in that band gets no first-time buyer relief at all.

Figures are worked out with our own calculator engine at the rates in force from 1 April 2025, for a sole first-time buyer who is UK resident. One pound over £500,000 adds £5,000 to the bill. At £650,000, the deposit a buyer needs under the scheme can be as little as £16,250, while the stamp duty is £22,500 and has to be paid in cash on completion. Anyone looking at inner London through the scheme should budget for stamp duty before anything else.

Work out your own figure with the first-time buyer stamp duty calculator, and see how stamp duty worked under the old scheme in Help to Buy and stamp duty.

Lifetime ISA and the New First Time Buyer ISA

Two changes affect first-time buyers saving for a deposit.

A smaller Lifetime ISA penalty above £450,000, from 29 October 2026

The Lifetime ISA can only be used for a first home costing £450,000 or less, a cap that has not moved since 2017. Until now, a saver buying above it paid the 25% charge that applies to any unauthorised withdrawal, which takes back the bonus and some of their own money. From midnight on 29 October 2026, the charge falls to 20% when the funds go towards a first home above £450,000 that meets the other qualifying rules. It stays at 25% for every other unauthorised withdrawal.

The change does not affect stamp duty. A first-time buyer at £450,001 or more still pays stamp duty at first-time buyer rates up to £500,000 and at standard rates above it. We explain how the Lifetime ISA and stamp duty interact in Lifetime ISA and stamp duty.

The First Time Buyer ISA, from April 2029

A new First Time Buyer ISA will replace the Lifetime ISA for new savers from April 2029. As announced:

• Contributions of up to £4,000 a year, with a 25% government bonus
• The bonus is worked out on the account balance when you withdraw for a qualifying first home, rather than added each year
• The bonus is capped at £20,000
• The home must cost £450,000 or less
• No upper age limit

If you already have a Lifetime ISA, you can keep paying in and using it under the current rules. The Budget documents do not say whether the new bonus can be used towards stamp duty. Lifetime ISA money cannot be, so until the rules are published, plan to pay stamp duty from other savings.

The Mansion Tax Is Confirmed

The High Value Council Tax Surcharge will apply to residential properties in England worth £2 million or more from April 2028, and will be legislated in Finance Bill 2026-27. The reported cut in the threshold to £1.5 million did not happen. On Budget day the government also published its response to the consultation on how the charge will work, which drew 424 responses. It confirms:

• Owners pay, not occupiers. Legal owners are liable, joint owners are jointly liable, and trustees pay where a home is held in trust
• Deferral is available where household income is £35,000 or less, capital savings are £16,000 or less, or a household member meets disability criteria. Deferred charges become due when the property changes hands
• Student halls, care homes and similar long-term care accommodation, and Ministry of Defence barracks are exempt
• There will be no extra charge on non-UK resident owners. Instead, homes that are substantially unfurnished and unoccupied for 12 months or more will pay a 100% premium
• Councils can start issuing bills from March 2028, and owners can appeal banding and liability decisions to the Valuation Tribunal

We cover the consultation outcome in full in the mansion tax consultation, and how the surcharge was first announced in the annual mansion tax surcharge.

The Three Technical SDLT Changes

HMRC listed three Stamp Duty Land Tax measures. None of them affects an individual buying a home.

What Was Proposed and Not Adopted

In the three months before the Budget, stamp duty changes were requested by a housebuilder, a think tank, a housing committee, the opposition and a group of Labour MPs. None of them appears in the Budget:

• A return of the £500,000 stamp duty holiday, or exemptions for first-time buyers and downsizers, asked for by a housing committee chaired by Sir Vince Cable on 16 October
• A 1% cap for first-time buyers and downsizers and removal of the 5% surcharge, asked for by Berkeley Group on 11 September. See Berkeley wants stamp duty capped at 1%
• A new relief for downsizers, which a Treasury letter dated 8 September had already said there were no plans for
• Abolishing stamp duty on homes, pledged by the Shadow Chancellor on 22 September
• Replacing stamp duty and council tax with an annual property tax, proposed by the Resolution Foundation and by some Labour MPs. See the stamp duty reform proposals
• Cutting the mansion tax threshold to £1.5 million, which the Financial Times reported on 13 October had been dropped

Each one is set out with its date and source in our pre-Budget tracker, Autumn Budget 2026 and Stamp Duty. The Prime Minister's statement of 27 July ruled out a stamp duty change at this Budget only, not for the rest of the Parliament, so the reform debate is likely to continue.

What It Means if You Are Buying Now

Buyers who held off until after the Budget have their answer: there is no stamp duty change to wait for and no deadline to beat. The figure on your purchase today is the figure it would have been last week.

• First-time buyers above £450,000 with a Lifetime ISA: from 29 October 2026 you can use the money with a 20% charge rather than 25%, which returns everything you paid in
• First-time buyers looking at new builds: Your First Home starts in April 2027. If you are buying in inner London, budget for full stamp duty on anything over £500,000
• Buyers of homes worth £2 million or more in England: stamp duty is unchanged, but the surcharge will add a yearly cost from April 2028
• Buy-to-let and second-home buyers: the 5% surcharge stays as it is

Work out what you will pay with the stamp duty calculator, and if you are still weighing up timing, see should I wait for stamp duty changes.

Frequently Asked Questions