Selling near £500,000: does the stamp duty line change your asking price?
open for offer is the pre-market: you can find out what your home is worth, and whether buyers are there, before it is ever advertised.
Yes, if the likely buyer for your home is buying their first. In England and Northern Ireland, first-time buyers pay reduced stamp duty on a home costing £500,000 or less. Above that price the relief disappears entirely. At £500,000 their tax is £10,000. At £505,000 it is £15,250.
open for offer is the pre-market, the market that exists before a property is ever advertised. This piece is for homeowners who have not listed and are wondering what number to put on the house when they do.
Where the line sits
Stamp duty is paid by the buyer, not by you. That is why it is easy to leave out of a pricing decision, and why it matters more than it looks.
A first-time buyer pays nothing on the first £300,000 and 5% on the portion from £300,001 to £500,000. Anyone else buying their only home pays nothing on the first £125,000, 2% on the next £125,000 and 5% on the portion from £250,001 to £925,000.
The relief is not tapered. If the price is over £500,000, a first-time buyer cannot claim it at all and pays the standard rates on the whole price.
| Price | First-time buyer pays | Buyer who has owned before pays |
|---|---|---|
| £300,000 | £0 | £5,000 |
| £450,000 | £7,500 | £12,500 |
| £500,000 | £10,000 | £15,000 |
| £505,000 | £15,250 | £15,250 |
Stamp duty on a single residential property in England and Northern Ireland, at the rates published on GOV.UK. The second column assumes the buyer will own no other home once they complete.
The most expensive £5,000 on your asking price
Read the table from £500,000 to £505,000. For a buyer who has owned before, the tax rises by £250. For a first-time buyer it rises by £5,250.
So asking £5,000 more does not cost a first-time buyer £5,000. It costs them £10,250: the £5,000 on the price and £5,250 in tax. The tax comes on top of the price, alongside the deposit, and it has to be found all the same.
From your side, the extra £5,000 looks small. From theirs, the house has moved more than £10,000 further away.
What the sold prices show
HM Land Registry publishes the price paid on completed sales. We counted the standard-price residential sales on that record for England in 2025, either side of £500,000.
| Line | £10,000 below | Exactly at the line | £10,000 above | Sales above for every 100 below |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £500,000 (relief ends) | 6,608 | 4,495 | 2,303 | 35 |
| £450,000 (no tax change) | 8,426 | 6,641 | 3,774 | 45 |
6,608 homes sold for between £490,000 and £499,999, and 4,495 sold at exactly £500,000. Only 2,303 sold for between £500,001 and £509,999.
Round numbers pull prices at every level, which is why the second row is there. At £450,000, where nothing about the tax changes, there were 45 sales just above the line for every 100 just below. At £500,000 there were 35.
The dip after £500,000 is deeper. The record cannot tell us how much of that is the tax and how much is the pull of a rounder number, and we would not claim otherwise. What it does show is that far fewer homes change hands in the £10,000 just above £500,000 than just below it.
What this means for your asking price
Nothing here says a house worth £520,000 should be priced at £500,000. The line only matters if two things are both true.
- Your home is near the line. Within a few per cent either side of £500,000, the choice between asking just under and just over is a real one.
- Your likely buyer is a first-time buyer. For someone who has owned before, stamp duty rises smoothly through £500,000 and the line barely registers.
If both are true, asking just over £500,000 in the hope of negotiating down has a cost that is easy to miss. The first number a buyer sees is the one they work their budget from, tax included.
Asking £500,000 keeps the whole of the relief on the table for the buyer. Asking £505,000 asks them for £10,250 more in total, to hand you £5,000.
Where it does not apply
Stamp Duty Land Tax covers England and Northern Ireland. Scotland has Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales has Land Transaction Tax, each with its own thresholds. Our sold-price count above is for England only.
Before you choose a number
The line is fixed. What moves is where your home sits against it. open for offer holds a market estimate for addresses across England, built from the home's last recorded sale adjusted for price movement in the area since. See the market estimate for your address. Looking it up does not list your home.
An estimate cannot tell you whether a first-time buyer is the one who wants your house. Buyers can register interest in your home before it is ever advertised, and you decide what happens next. See how testing the market works.
Testing the market is £9.99 a month, cancel any time.
Common questions
How much stamp duty does a first-time buyer pay on a £500,000 home?
£10,000 in England and Northern Ireland. First-time buyers pay nothing on the first £300,000 and 5% on the portion from £300,001 to £500,000.
What happens if a first-time buyer pays more than £500,000?
They cannot claim first-time buyer relief and pay the standard rates on the whole price. On a £505,000 home that comes to £15,250, against £10,000 at £500,000.
Does the £500,000 line apply in Scotland and Wales?
No. Stamp Duty Land Tax covers England and Northern Ireland. Scotland has Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales has Land Transaction Tax, each with its own thresholds.