What this calculator works out
The calculator adds up the cash you need on completion day and the first twelve months of owning the home.
The stamp duty and the Land Registry fee are calculated from the published GOV.UK scales, and the stamp duty is shown band by band so you can check it. The other figures are starting points to replace with your own quotes.
Stamp Duty Land Tax — the figures used
Stamp Duty Land Tax applies in England and Northern Ireland. Scotland has Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales has Land Transaction Tax; both have different bands and this calculator does not cover them. SDLT is charged in slices: each rate applies only to the portion of the price that falls inside its band.
Standard residential rates, from 1 April 2025
- Up to £125,000 — 0%
- £125,001 to £250,000 — 2%
- £250,001 to £925,000 — 5%
- £925,001 to £1.5 million — 10%
- Above £1.5 million — 12%
First-time buyers' relief, from 1 April 2025
- Up to £300,000 — 0%
- £300,001 to £500,000 — 5%
- Above a purchase price of £500,000 the relief is not available at all, and standard rates apply to the whole price.
Higher rates for additional dwellings, from 1 April 2025
If the property will not be the only residential property worth £40,000 or more that you own anywhere in the world, higher rates apply: 5%, 7%, 10%, 15% and 17% across the same bands — a five percentage point surcharge throughout. Purchases under £40,000 are outside the higher rates.
Sources, both checked against the primary GOV.UK guidance: residential property rates and higher rates for additional properties. Rates change at Budgets, so check the GOV.UK pages before you rely on the figure.
The 2% surcharge for non-UK residents, multiple dwellings, mixed-use and non-residential property, linked transactions, shared ownership elections, and the refund you can claim if you sell your previous main home within three years of paying the higher rates. If any of those apply to you, ask your solicitor for the figure.
The HM Land Registry fee
Registering the transfer of the title is a separate, compulsory fee, collected by your conveyancer as a disbursement. It is charged on a scale by property value. The calculator uses the Scale 1 fee for a transfer of whole for value, at the reduced rate for applications lodged electronically through the portal or Business Gateway. Those fees are £20, £40, £100, £150, £295 and £500 as the value rises through £80,000, £100,000, £200,000, £500,000 and £1 million. A postal application costs substantially more, so ask if your quote looks high.
The mortgage payment
The monthly payment is the standard repayment-mortgage formula:
payment = L × i ÷ (1 − (1 + i)−n)
where L is the amount borrowed, i is the annual rate divided by twelve, and n is the number of monthly payments. On £292,500 over 30 years at 4.5% that gives £1,482 a month.
The calculator also splits your first twelve payments into interest and capital. Interest is a cost; capital repaid becomes equity. Early in a mortgage, most of each payment is interest.
The rate you enter is treated as fixed for the whole term. Initial deals last two to five years before a remortgage, so run the calculator again a couple of percentage points higher to see the payment at a higher rate.
First-year running costs, and where the defaults come from
- Council tax — £199 a month. The average Band D council tax set by local authorities in England for 2026-27 is £2,392 a year including all precepts (GOV.UK), which is £199 a month. Your actual bill depends on the band and the authority, so check the band for the specific property and put the real figure in.
- Gas and electricity — £155 a month. Ofgem's price cap for 1 July to 30 September 2026 works out at £1,862 a year for a typical dual-fuel household paying by direct debit (Ofgem). The cap is reset every three months and applies to England, Scotland and Wales, not Northern Ireland. A larger house than the typical one will cost more.
- Water, insurance and broadband — blank on purpose. These vary too much by region, property and provider for a default. Enter your own; until you do, the year-one total is understated and the calculator says so.
- Maintenance — 1% of the price a year. This is a rule of thumb, not a published statistic. On an older property, or one the survey flagged, raise it.
- Conveyancing, survey, lender fees, removals and furnishing. Starting estimates in the ranges our guide to the true cost of buying a home sets out. Replace each one with a real quote as you get it.
Using the result
The headline figure is everything the first year costs except the deposit.
If you are a first-time buyer, run it twice: once as a first-time buyer and once as a home mover, and look at what the relief is worth. And read our first-time buyer guide for the Lifetime ISA bonus — 25% on up to £4,000 a year, up to £1,000 free, towards a first home worth up to £450,000.
Which mortgage to take is a regulated recommendation, and Buzz Accounting Ltd is not authorised to make one. Coaching covers what comes before it: what you can afford, what the whole cost looks like, and what you would do if the rate went up. Start with the free Financial Freedom Score, or the £1,500 Financial Plan if you want the whole picture written down.