Renting versus buying in the United Kingdom
The stamp duty scale above is England and Northern Ireland only, at the standard residential rates in force since 1 April 2025. Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales charges Land Transaction Tax on entirely different scales, so if you are buying in Edinburgh or Cardiff the entry cost shown here is the wrong tax on the wrong bands.
On the English scale nothing is due below £125,000, then 2% to £250,000, 5% to £925,000, 10% to £1.5m and 12% above. That is a comparatively soft entry: £4,500 on a £290,000 home, a little over 1.5% of the price, against 5% or more in France, Germany and Spain.
A first-time buyer pays nothing up to £300,000, on a purchase of no more than £500,000, which removes stamp duty entirely on a typical purchase and pulls the break-even year forward. That relief is not modelled here, so a genuine first purchase is better than the figures above.
There is no mortgage insurance in Britain. Lenders price the risk of a small deposit into the interest rate instead, so a 5% deposit shows up as a higher rate rather than a separate premium, set the mortgage rate accordingly rather than looking for a missing cost line.
Council tax is a banded charge set by each council, not a percentage of value: the average band D bill in England is £2,280 for 2025-26. Because it is a flat annual bill it does not grow with the house in this comparison, which is the right behaviour and unlike the American property tax.