Regional guide · England & Northern Ireland
Stamp Duty Refunds by Region
Where you bought does not affect whether you can claim. Stamp Duty Land Tax is one tax with one rulebook across England and Northern Ireland: the same bands, the same reliefs, the same four-year window, the same surcharge refund rules in Sunderland as in Chelsea. There is no regional HMRC office to appeal to and no local variation to exploit. What region does change is how much a refund is worth — because that follows the purchase price.
Last reviewed 26 August 2026.
What actually varies: the size of the refund
SDLT is charged in slices at rising rates, so a deduction saves you tax at the highest rate your purchase reaches, not at an average rate. Take £10,000 of carpets, curtains and white goods correctly excluded from the chargeable consideration: on a £200,000 purchase most of the price sits in the 0% and 2% bands, so that deduction saves about £200. On a £450,000 purchase the top slice is in the 5% band, so the same £10,000 saves £500. Identical claim, identical paperwork, two and a half times the money.
Surcharge refunds behave differently again. If you paid the additional-property surcharge and later sold your previous main residence within three years, the refund is a flat percentage of the whole price — 5% for completions on or after 31 October 2024, 3% before that. There is no banding effect: on a £260,000 Manchester flat that is £13,000, and on a £523,000 London purchase it is £26,150. That is the single largest refund route in the country, and it is the one worth checking first. How to claim the second-home surcharge back.
Above £400,000
7 of 55 areas
Most of the price sits in the 5% band, so a chattels deduction is worth 5p in the pound. Surcharge refunds here are the largest in the country.
£250,000 – £400,000
28 of 55 areas
The top slice falls in the 5% band. Chattels deductions are worth having; surcharge refunds are substantial.
Below £250,000
20 of 55 areas
Most of the price sits in the 0% and 2% bands, so chattels deductions are worth 2p in the pound or nothing at all. A surcharge refund is still worth the full 5% (or 3%) of the price.
Typical figures by area
Average purchase price, the chattels value typically included at that level, and the resulting chattels refund range. Ordered by price, because that is what drives the figure. These are indicative ranges to size the opportunity, not a quotation — run the free Refund Checker for a figure based on your own purchase.
| Area | Avg. price | Typical chattels | Chattels refund |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | £523,000 | £8,000–£25,000 | £400–£1,250 |
| Surrey | £485,000 | £8,000–£20,000 | £400–£1,000 |
| Buckinghamshire | £460,000 | £7,000–£18,000 | £350–£900 |
| Hertfordshire | £450,000 | £7,000–£18,000 | £350–£900 |
| Berkshire | £430,000 | £6,000–£16,000 | £300–£800 |
| Oxfordshire | £420,000 | £6,000–£15,000 | £300–£750 |
| Bath | £420,000 | £8,000–£17,000 | £400–£850 |
| Reading | £398,000 | £8,000–£16,000 | £400–£800 |
| Brighton | £395,000 | £6,000–£14,000 | £300–£700 |
| Hampshire | £380,000 | £6,000–£15,000 | £300–£750 |
| Essex | £370,000 | £5,000–£12,000 | £250–£600 |
| West Sussex | £370,000 | £5,000–£12,000 | £250–£600 |
| Cambridgeshire | £365,000 | £7,000–£15,000 | £350–£750 |
| Kent | £355,000 | £5,000–£12,000 | £250–£600 |
| Gloucestershire | £350,000 | £5,000–£15,000 | £250–£750 |
| Dorset | £345,000 | £7,000–£14,000 | £350–£700 |
| East Sussex | £342,000 | £7,000–£14,000 | £350–£700 |
| Bristol | £340,000 | £5,000–£12,000 | £250–£600 |
| Bedfordshire | £325,000 | £7,000–£13,000 | £350–£650 |
| Wiltshire | £318,000 | £6,000–£13,000 | £300–£650 |
| Devon | £315,000 | £6,000–£13,000 | £300–£650 |
| Cornwall | £310,000 | £6,000–£12,000 | £300–£600 |
| Warwickshire | £310,000 | £6,000–£12,000 | £300–£600 |
| Cheshire | £308,000 | £6,000–£12,000 | £300–£600 |
| Suffolk | £305,000 | £6,000–£12,000 | £300–£600 |
| Somerset | £295,000 | £6,000–£12,000 | £300–£600 |
| Herefordshire | £278,000 | £6,000–£11,000 | £300–£550 |
| Worcestershire | £278,000 | £6,000–£11,000 | £300–£550 |
| Norfolk | £278,000 | £6,000–£11,000 | £300–£550 |
| North Yorkshire | £278,000 | £6,000–£11,000 | £300–£550 |
| Northamptonshire | £265,000 | £5,000–£11,000 | £250–£550 |
| Shropshire | £262,000 | £5,000–£10,000 | £250–£500 |
| Manchester | £260,000 | £4,000–£10,000 | £200–£500 |
| Leicestershire | £258,000 | £5,000–£10,000 | £250–£450 |
| Leeds | £250,000 | £4,000–£9,000 | £75–£175 |
| Derbyshire | £248,000 | £5,000–£10,000 | £100–£200 |
| East Midlands | £248,000 | £5,000–£10,000 | £100–£200 |
| West Midlands | £242,000 | £5,000–£10,000 | £100–£200 |
| Birmingham | £240,000 | £4,000–£8,000 | £75–£150 |
| Nottinghamshire | £238,000 | £5,000–£10,000 | £100–£200 |
| Staffordshire | £238,000 | £5,000–£10,000 | £100–£200 |
| Yorkshire | £228,000 | £5,000–£9,000 | £100–£175 |
| Nottingham | £225,000 | £3,000–£8,000 | £50–£150 |
| Sheffield | £220,000 | £3,000–£8,000 | £50–£150 |
| Lincolnshire | £218,000 | £4,000–£9,000 | £75–£175 |
| Cumbria | £218,000 | £4,000–£9,000 | £75–£175 |
| Northumberland | £218,000 | £4,000–£9,000 | £75–£175 |
| West Yorkshire | £218,000 | £4,000–£9,000 | £75–£175 |
| East Yorkshire | £210,000 | £4,000–£8,000 | £75–£150 |
| Lancashire | £198,000 | £4,000–£8,000 | £75–£150 |
| Liverpool | £195,000 | £3,000–£7,000 | £50–£150 |
| South Yorkshire | £192,000 | £4,000–£8,000 | £75–£150 |
| Merseyside | £188,000 | £4,000–£8,000 | £75–£150 |
| Tyne and Wear | £182,000 | £4,000–£7,000 | £75–£150 |
| County Durham | £168,000 | £3,000–£7,000 | £50–£150 |
Chattels refund ranges assume a normally furnished sale and the SDLT bands in force from 1 April 2025. A second-home surcharge refund, where one applies, is far larger and is not included in this column.
Why there are no separate pages per area
We used to publish a page for each of the areas in the table above. We took them down, because they were telling you the same thing 55 times with the place name changed. The SDLT rules do not vary by area, so a per-area page can only repeat the national rules and swap in a local average price — which is what the table above already does, in one place you can compare.
The one exception is Edinburgh, and it is an exception because the tax itself is different there.
Stamp duty refunds in EdinburghScotland charges LBTT, not SDLT — different tax, different refund routeScotland and Wales are different taxes
Everything on this page is Stamp Duty Land Tax, which covers England and Northern Ireland only. Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, with an Additional Dwelling Supplement in place of the SDLT surcharge, administered by Revenue Scotland. Wales charges Land Transaction Tax, administered by the Welsh Revenue Authority. Both have their own rates, their own deadlines and their own refund routes, and our DIY Claim Pack does not cover them.
Frequently asked questions
Does where I bought affect whether I can claim a stamp duty refund?
Why are refunds bigger in some regions?
I bought in Scotland or Wales — do these rules apply?
Find out what your purchase is worth
The Refund Checker screens your purchase against every SDLT refund route in about two minutes, wherever in England or Northern Ireland you bought. If you qualify, the DIY Claim Pack gives you the templates and the exact HMRC forms to file it yourself.