Applicable SDLT Rates for First-Time Buyers: Current Thresholds, 1 April 2025 Reversion, and How the Relief Maps Onto the Standard Rate Table

This page is the rates-and-bands reference for SDLT first-time buyer relief in England and Northern Ireland. It sets out the current Schedule 6ZA table verbatim, walks the £500,000 cliff edge with a £1 worked example, illustrates the joint purchase trap with a non-FTB partner, and clarifies why the maximum cash saving from the relief is around £5,000 to £6,250 rather than the higher figures sometimes quoted. The eligibility test (who counts as a first-time buyer) and the calculator-by-price-point view sit on companion pages cross-linked at the end.

The current rates: 0% to £300,000, 5% to £500,000, withdrawn above

The relief lives in FA 2003 section 57B and Schedule 6ZA. Section 57B reads: "Schedule 6ZA provides relief for first-time buyers." The substance is in Schedule 6ZA. The two-tier rate table at paragraph 4 (Table A) is:

• 0% on the portion of the chargeable consideration up to £300,000.
• 5% on the portion of the chargeable consideration above £300,000 and up to £500,000.

Schedule 6ZA paragraph 1(3) imposes the absolute cap: the relief is available only where the chargeable consideration for the transaction (other than any consisting of rent) does not exceed £500,000. Any purchase above £500,000 falls outside the relief in full. There is no taper: the relief either applies completely or not at all, and the cliff sits at the £500,000 boundary.

The relief must be claimed on the SDLT return for the transaction (FA 2003 s.57B(2)). It is not automatic. The return is filed by the buyer's conveyancer at completion and the relief code is entered on the return form. A return that omits the relief and pays the full standard residential SDLT can be amended within 12 months of the filing date to claim the relief and reclaim the overpayment.

What changed on 1 April 2025

The September 2022 mini-Budget introduced temporary first-time buyer thresholds: a £425,000 nil band and a £625,000 maximum chargeable consideration cap. These thresholds were in force for transactions with an effective date on or after 23 September 2022 and were always scheduled to sunset. The Autumn Budget 2024 confirmed the sunset, and the temporary figures lapsed for transactions with an effective date on or after 1 April 2025. The pre-2022 permanent thresholds (£300,000 nil band, £500,000 cap) returned in full.

For a purchase completing on or after 1 April 2025, use the £300,000 and £500,000 figures. For a purchase that completed (effective date) between 23 September 2022 and 31 March 2025, the £425,000 and £625,000 figures applied. Many competitor pages, calculator sites, and aggregator pages still quote the temporary figures, in some cases without any acknowledgement that they have lapsed. The 1 April 2025 reversion is the load-bearing date.

The £500,000 cliff edge: a £1 worked example

The £500,000 cap is binary, not tapered. A purchase at £499,999 by a qualifying first-time buyer attracts SDLT of £9,999.95 (0% on the first £300,000 plus 5% on £199,999). A purchase at £500,001 by the same buyer falls outside the relief in full and attracts SDLT on the standard residential rate table on the whole £500,001:

• 0% on the first £125,000 = £0
• 2% on the £125,000 to £250,000 portion = £2,500
• 5% on the £250,000 to £500,000 portion = £12,500
• 5% on the £1 above £500,000 = £0.05
• Total: £15,000.05

The £1 increase in consideration moves the SDLT bill by £5,000.10. Buyers and sellers negotiating prices in the £490,000 to £510,000 range need to model the cliff at offer stage. A vendor pricing at £505,000 for a typical first-time buyer purchaser is asking the buyer to find an additional £5,005 of SDLT on top of the £5,000 price difference compared with a £499,999 deal, so the effective cost to the buyer of moving up by £5,001 is £10,005. The negotiation dynamic around the cliff is well-understood by experienced conveyancers and increasingly by buyers' agents in the relevant price band.

How the relief compares with the standard rate table

The relief replaces the first three bands of the standard residential rate table with the two-tier first-time buyer table. The standard residential rates from 1 April 2025 are:

• 0% on the first £125,000
• 2% on the £125,000 to £250,000 portion
• 5% on the £250,000 to £925,000 portion
• 10% on the £925,000 to £1,500,000 portion
• 12% on the portion above £1,500,000

For a sole first-time buyer with no surcharge, the relief consistently produces a lower SDLT bill than the standard table at any price up to £500,000. The cash saving scales with the price up to a peak in the £425,000 to £500,000 range. Worked figures across the band:

• £250,000 purchase: Relief £0 (0% on £250,000 within the £300,000 nil band). Standard £2,500. Saving £2,500.
• £300,000 purchase: Relief £0 (0% on £300,000, exactly at the relief nil band). Standard £5,000 (£2,500 on the second band plus £2,500 on the £50,000 in the 5% band). Saving £5,000.
• £400,000 purchase: Relief £5,000 (0% on £300,000 plus 5% on £100,000). Standard £10,000 (£2,500 on the second band plus £7,500 on the £150,000 in the 5% band). Saving £5,000.
• £425,000 purchase: Relief £6,250 (5% on £125,000). Standard £11,250 (£2,500 plus 5% on £175,000 = £8,750). Saving £5,000.
• £500,000 purchase: Relief £10,000 (5% on £200,000). Standard £15,000 (£2,500 plus 5% on £250,000 = £12,500). Saving £5,000.
• £500,001 purchase: No relief. Standard £15,000.05. Saving £0.

The peak cash saving figure is in the £5,000 to £6,250 range, not the higher figures sometimes quoted in headline commentary. The often-cited larger savings either confuse the SDLT saving with the absence of the additional dwellings surcharge (a separate item, not a relief feature) or apply the lapsed £425,000 and £625,000 thresholds rather than the current figures.

Joint purchases and the additional dwellings surcharge trap

The most common loss-of-relief situation for first-time buyers is the joint purchase with a partner who already owns a residential property. The mechanics are statutory and unforgiving.

Schedule 6ZA paragraph 1(5) disqualifies the first-time buyer relief where the additional dwellings surcharge applies on the transaction. Schedule 4ZA paragraph 2 aggregates joint purchasers for the surcharge analysis: the surcharge applies if any one of the joint purchasers (or their spouse or civil partner) already owns a major interest in another dwelling at the end of the day of the transaction. One non-first-time buyer joint purchaser triggers the surcharge on the entire transaction and the relief is unavailable.

The cash impact is material. A £400,000 joint purchase by a qualifying first-time buyer and a partner who already owns a buy-to-let property:

• 0% + 5% surcharge on the first £125,000 = 5% × £125,000 = £6,250
• 2% + 5% surcharge on the £125,000 to £250,000 portion = 7% × £125,000 = £8,750
• 5% + 5% surcharge on the £250,000 to £400,000 portion = 10% × £150,000 = £15,000
• Total: £30,000

Compared with the £5,000 the same buyer would pay on the same £400,000 property as a sole first-time buyer, the joint structure with the BTL partner costs £25,000 of additional SDLT. The trap is sustained, not one-off: the first-time buyer's FTB status under Schedule 6ZA is lost on the joint purchase (the buyer has now been a purchaser of a major interest in a dwelling), so any subsequent purchase even after a relationship change is unlikely to re-engage the relief.

Spousal joint purchase planning, where one spouse is a first-time buyer and the other holds existing residential property, typically goes one of three ways. First, the existing-property spouse sells before the joint purchase, removing the surcharge and the FTB-disqualifier. Second, the first-time-buyer spouse purchases alone (subject to mortgage lender willingness, which is the common blocker). Third, the couple accepts the joint-purchase cost and proceeds. The cash position needs to be modelled at offer stage; surprises at completion-day SDLT calculation are common and avoidable.

Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales: jurisdictional scope

SDLT applies in England and Northern Ireland on identical rates and reliefs. The Schedule 6ZA first-time buyer relief operates the same way in both jurisdictions: 0% to £300,000, 5% to £500,000, fully withdrawn above £500,000, with the same Schedule 4ZA surcharge interaction.

Scotland uses LBTT under LBTT(S)A 2013, administered by Revenue Scotland. The Scottish first-time buyer relief is at LBTT(S)A 2013 Schedule 4A and is structured as a £175,000 nil-rate-band uplift with no upper property-value ceiling. The architectural difference matters: a Scottish first-time buyer purchasing at £800,000 still benefits from the relief on the first £175,000; an English first-time buyer purchasing at £800,000 receives no Schedule 6ZA relief at all. Cross-border buyers (an English first-time buyer purchasing in Scotland or vice versa) use the local regime, not the English one.

Wales uses LTT under LTTA 2017, administered by the Welsh Revenue Authority. Wales has no separate first-time buyer relief: the £225,000 nil band on Welsh LTT is treated as covering the starter-home market without a dedicated relief overlay. A Welsh first-time buyer purchasing at £400,000 receives no relief; SDLT (or rather LTT) is computed at the standard Welsh table on the whole price. For a comparative view across the three jurisdictions, see our companion Welsh LTT first-time buyer page and Scottish LBTT first-time buyer page.

Cross-jurisdictional analysis around inheritance, gift, and prior-property ownership is fact-sensitive. A buyer who has previously owned property in any country in the world is not a first-time buyer for Schedule 6ZA purposes. The test is global, not UK-only.

Shared ownership, bare trust, and other special cases

Schedule 6ZA paragraph 6 contains the eligibility definition and the special rules for shared ownership. A first-time buyer acquiring a shared-ownership lease (typically from a housing association under a Help to Buy or similar scheme) has a choice between two SDLT routes:

• Market-value election: the buyer pays SDLT on the full open market value of the property at acquisition, treating the transaction as if a full ownership purchase had occurred. The election is irrevocable for the transaction. The first-time buyer relief applies to the full open market value (capped at £500,000). No further SDLT arises on subsequent staircasing.
• Initial-share basis: the buyer pays SDLT only on the share initially acquired plus any net present value of the rental element. Future SDLT is due as shares are staircased above 80% (no SDLT on staircasing between 0% and 80%). The relief applies to the initial-share SDLT (subject to the £500,000 cap on the initial consideration).

The choice is fact-specific. Market-value election is typically preferred where the buyer intends to staircase to 100% over a short timeframe and the open market value is under £500,000. The initial-share basis is typically preferred where the buyer expects to remain at a low share for a long time, or where the open market value exceeds £500,000 (so that the market-value election would lose the relief entirely while the initial-share basis preserves it on a smaller chargeable amount).

F(No.2)A 2024 section 8 inserted Schedule 6ZA paragraph 6(3) to address a narrow bare-trust point: where a first-time buyer is the beneficiary under a bare trust holding the lease, the buyer is treated as the purchaser for first-time buyer status purposes. This closed a previously-arguable workaround where parents would hold property on bare trust for a child. The amendment does not affect the rate-band architecture; it sharpens the eligibility test.

Where this page sits in the cluster

This is the rates-and-bands reference page for England and Northern Ireland first-time buyer SDLT relief. The companion pages in the cluster cover eligibility (who counts as a first-time buyer under Schedule 6ZA paragraph 6), calculator-by-price-point (a band-by-band illustration across the price range), and the practical deposit-and-cash-flow angle for buyers approaching the relief.

For the eligibility deep-dive (joint-purchaser tests, inherited-interest interaction, prior-bare-trust holdings, foreign-property prior ownership), see our first-time buyer relief benefits and eligibility requirements page. For a price-point calculator illustration across the band, see our first-time buyer relief calculator page. For the practical financial-planning angle around deposit and cash flow, see our first-time buyer relief and the deposit question page. For the Scottish equivalent under LBTT(S)A 2013 Schedule 4A, see our Scottish LBTT first-time buyer relief eligibility and mechanics page. For the Welsh position (no separate FTB relief; the £225,000 nil band covers the function), see our Welsh LTT first-time buyer relief mechanics and three-jurisdiction comparison page.