First-time buyer costs on £290,000 (2026/27)

First-time buyer costs on £290,000

Pre-filled for first-time buyer assumptions so you can compare against mover and second-home cases quickly.

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Guides for the costs at this price

What changes at this threshold?

Compare nearby price brackets with the same assumptions to see how tax and all-in totals move.

How a first-time buyer's £0 on £290,000 is worked out

First-time buyer relief swaps the normal bands for its own. For a first-time buyer at £290,000 the working is:

1. The first £290,000: £290,000 at 0% = £0
2. Total SDLT: £0, or 0.00% of the price

Source: GOV.UK: Stamp Duty rates for first-time buyers

The relief limit and £290,000

A first-time buyer pays no Stamp Duty at £290,000: the whole price is inside the £300,000 first-time buyer nil-rate band.

That saves the whole £4,500 a home mover would pay at this price.

The price could rise by £10,000 before a first-time buyer pays anything.

A Lifetime ISA can go towards a first home costing up to £450,000, so £290,000 is inside the limit and the savings and bonus can be used without a withdrawal charge, provided the other Lifetime ISA conditions are met.

Source: GOV.UK: Lifetime ISA withdrawal charges

Cash a first-time buyer needs at £290,000

On top of the deposit a first-time buyer needs about £1,870 to £4,020: the £0 Stamp Duty, conveyancing (£1,270 average 2026 freehold quote at this price), a RICS Level 2 survey (£600 to £700) and up to £2,050 of mortgage fees. A fee-free mortgage gives the lower end.

Lenders set their own deposit rules. Conveyancing from Compare My Move; survey and mortgage fees from HomeOwners Alliance.

A first-time buyer at £290,000 in Scotland and Wales

In Scotland a first-time buyer pays £3,500 LBTT at £290,000: the relief there has no price limit but is worth at most £600.

Wales has no first-time buyer relief, so a first-time buyer pays the full £3,900 LTT. In England and Northern Ireland the same buyer pays £0, against £4,500 for a home mover.

Source: Revenue Scotland: Land and Buildings Transaction Tax · Welsh Government: Land Transaction Tax rates and bands

First-time buyer prices either side of £290,000

The first-time buyer column is the one to watch: the relief is lost on the whole price above £500,000.

England and Northern Ireland, 2026/27 rates, from the same calculator as the figures above.

Monthly mortgage on a £290,000 first home

Most first-time buyers borrow most of the £290,000. The table shows the mortgage left after a 5%, 10% and 15% deposit and what it would cost each month. The £0 Stamp Duty and the fees are paid from savings on top of the deposit, unless the lender lets you add its own fees to the loan.

Up to £300,000 a first-time buyer pays nothing, so a price rise of up to £10,000 costs no Stamp Duty at all. Past £300,000 each extra £1,000 costs £50 at the 5% relief rate.

Monthly repayments use an example 5% rate over 30 years, capital and interest. They are not a quote: your lender's rate and term set the real figure.

Registering your first home at £290,000

The £0 figure only applies if every buyer on the purchase is a first-time buyer: someone who has never owned a home in the UK or anywhere else. If one of you has, the purchase is taxed at the home mover rates, £4,500 at £290,000, or more if that person still owns another home.

Registering a first home at £290,000 with HM Land Registry costs £150 through the portal or £330 by post (the £200,001 to £500,000 fee band).

Your conveyancer pays it after completion and adds it to the bill, so check that the quote shows it as a disbursement.

Source: HM Land Registry: registration services fees

Your First Home at £290,000

Your First Home is the government scheme for first-time buyers of new-build homes in England, with applications expected from February 2027. At £290,000 the minimum 2.5% deposit is £7,250, the government's 20% equity loan is £58,000 and the mortgage is £224,750.

At our example rate that mortgage costs about £1,207 a month in years 1 to 5, against £1,479 for a 95% mortgage of £275,500. The loan is interest free for 5 years, then adds about £72 a month in year 6 and £145 from year 7.

Local price caps apply and the full list is not published yet. Of the published examples, £290,000 is within the cap in North Devon, Manchester, Reading, Outer London, Inner London.

Monthly repayments use an example 5% rate over 30 years, capital and interest. They are not a quote: your lender's rate and term set the real figure.

Source: GOV.UK: Your First Home

Where first-time buyers typically pay £290,000

In August 2026, the average first-time buyer's home cost closest to £290,000 in Wealden, Stroud and New Forest, according to HM Land Registry's House Price Index.

In England a first-time buyer pays £0 stamp duty at this price; in Scotland the closest match is Edinburgh (£252,487), where a first-time buyer pays £3,500 LBTT on £290,000; in Wales the closest match is Monmouthshire (£264,431), where a first-time buyer pays £3,900 LTT on £290,000 (Wales has no first-time buyer relief).

103 of 349 council areas have a higher average first-time buyer price than £290,000, and 246 a lower one.

HM Land Registry UK House Price Index, August 2026 (provisional). The tax column is this page's price under each area's own nation's rules, 2026/27.

Source: HM Land Registry: UK House Price Index data downloads, August 2026

Conveyancing at £290,000

Average 2026 conveyancing quotes in the £200,001 to £300,000 band were £1,270 for a freehold purchase and £1,420 for a leasehold (Compare My Move), and the Land Registry fee at this price is £150 online. See conveyancing fees on a £290,000 home for every price band, each region and what a quote should include.

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