Yes. There is no nationality or residence restriction on buying residential property in England and Wales. If that was the question, the answer is one word and the rest of this page is about something else.
The something else is what entry costs, because that is the number the question is usually standing in front of.
We applied the published stamp duty rates to our own median flat price in each London borough, taken from HM Land Registry Price Paid, category A, the twelve months to 30 June 2026. For a non-UK resident buying an additional residential property, the total comes to 18,650 pounds in Barking and Dagenham, 44,600 in Tower Hamlets, 80,000 in Westminster and 96,800 in Kensington and Chelsea. As a share of the purchase price that is 7.9%, 9.8%, 10.7% and 10.9%.
Two surcharges, and the smaller one is the foreign one
The bill has three layers. Standard stamp duty, which everyone pays. A 5 percentage point surcharge for buying an additional property, which a British buyer with a second home also pays. And a 2 percentage point surcharge for being non-resident, in force since 1 April 2021.
On the Tower Hamlets flat, the additional-property layer is 22,750 pounds and the non-resident layer is 9,100. The part that depends on your passport is two fifths of the part that depends on it being your second property, and that ratio holds in every borough because both are flat percentages of the same price.
The residency test is a day count, not a status
You are non-resident for this purpose if you were present in the UK for fewer than 183 days in the twelve months before the purchase. It is arithmetic on days, not a question of citizenship, visa or domicile. The same test decides whether the 2 percentage points can later be reclaimed, which is a separate matter covered on its own.
What we are not telling you here
This is the tax on the purchase and nothing else. Conveyancing, survey, lender fees, and the ongoing position on income and gains all sit outside it. Rates change at fiscal events, and the figures above are the rates as published at the date of this piece.
Nor does any of this address whether a lender will fund the purchase, which for a non-resident buyer is a separate question with a separate answer, and one where we hold no data on pricing.
The permission question has a one-word answer. The cost question has thirty-two, one per borough, and they differ by a factor of five and a half.
Entry cost for a non-resident buyer, by London borough
| Borough | Median flat price (GBP) | Stamp duty (GBP) | Share of price | Transactions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kensington and Chelsea | 890,000 | 96,800 | 10.9% | 985 |
| City of Westminster | 750,000 | 80,000 | 10.7% | 1,330 |
| City of London | 742,500 | 79,100 | 10.7% | 112 |
| Camden | 670,000 | 70,400 | 10.5% | 1,199 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 585,000 | 60,200 | 10.3% | 1,161 |
| Islington | 575,000 | 59,000 | 10.3% | 1,251 |
| Hackney | 526,000 | 53,120 | 10.1% | 1,357 |
| Wandsworth | 522,500 | 52,700 | 10.1% | 2,584 |
| Richmond upon Thames | 470,000 | 46,400 | 9.9% | 821 |
| Lambeth | 470,000 | 46,400 | 9.9% | 2,116 |
| Haringey | 460,000 | 45,200 | 9.8% | 992 |
| Tower Hamlets | 455,000 | 44,600 | 9.8% | 1,803 |
| Southwark | 450,000 | 44,000 | 9.8% | 1,684 |
| Brent | 415,000 | 39,800 | 9.6% | 759 |
| Waltham Forest | 400,000 | 38,000 | 9.5% | 987 |
| Ealing | 399,950 | 37,994 | 9.5% | 1,045 |
| Merton | 395,000 | 37,400 | 9.5% | 738 |
| Barnet | 386,000 | 36,320 | 9.4% | 1,085 |
| Lewisham | 375,750 | 35,090 | 9.3% | 1,308 |
| Greenwich | 375,000 | 35,000 | 9.3% | 986 |
| Kingston upon Thames | 375,000 | 35,000 | 9.3% | 603 |
| Newham | 375,000 | 35,000 | 9.3% | 770 |
| Hounslow | 350,000 | 32,000 | 9.1% | 708 |
| Bromley | 335,000 | 30,200 | 9.0% | 1,090 |
| Harrow | 325,000 | 29,000 | 8.9% | 430 |
| Enfield | 320,000 | 28,400 | 8.9% | 644 |
| Redbridge | 315,000 | 27,800 | 8.8% | 491 |
| Hillingdon | 301,000 | 26,120 | 8.7% | 533 |
| Sutton | 290,000 | 24,800 | 8.6% | 689 |
| Croydon | 280,000 | 23,600 | 8.4% | 1,042 |
| Bexley | 265,000 | 21,800 | 8.2% | 518 |
| Havering | 265,000 | 21,800 | 8.2% | 538 |
| Barking and Dagenham | 235,000 | 18,650 | 7.9% | 257 |
Methodology
Median flat prices are computed from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, transaction
records for 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, PPD category A (standard price paid, single residential
property sold for value), property type F (flats and maisonettes), Greater London
only. Read on 2026-08-26. Across the 33 boroughs the medians rest on
32,947 transactions; the per-borough count is in the table, because a
median over a few dozen sales is a measure of who sold that year, not of the borough.
Price Paid Data is revised: transactions enter the dataset as they are registered,
sometimes months after completion. A recomputation next month will move these
figures slightly. That is the source behaving normally, not an error here — which
is why the window and the reading date are stated rather than left implicit.
Stamp duty is the published residential schedule plus the 5 percentage point
additional-dwelling surcharge and the 2 percentage point non-resident surcharge,
giving 7%, 9%, 12%, 17% and 19% across the five bands. The schedule reproduces
the figures this piece carried before the medians were refreshed, which is how
it was checked before being used.
Rates read on 2026-08-26 from GOV.UK — Rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax for non-UK
residents and GOV.UK — Stamp Duty Land Tax: residential property rates.
Read next in this series
- the gross yield ladder across all 32 London boroughs
- the 2% surcharge that comes back on a 183-day count
- why the rate moves the plan more than the borough does
Sources
- GOV.UK — Rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax for non-UK residents
- GOV.UK — Stamp Duty Land Tax: residential property rates
- HM Land Registry — Price Paid Data (Open Government Licence v3.0)
FAQ
Can a non-citizen buy property in the UK?
Yes. There is no nationality or residence restriction on buying residential property in England and Wales.
How much does a non-resident pay in stamp duty in London?
Between 7.9% and 11.1% of the purchase price on the median flat, depending on borough: 18,650 pounds in Barking and Dagenham, 44,600 in Tower Hamlets, 80,000 in Westminster and 96,800 in Kensington and Chelsea.
What counts as non-resident for UK stamp duty?
Being present in the UK for fewer than 183 days in the twelve months before the purchase. It is a day count, not a question of citizenship, visa or domicile.
Frequently asked questions
Can a non-citizen buy property in the UK?
Yes. There is no nationality or residence restriction on buying residential property in England and Wales.
How much does a non-resident pay in stamp duty in London?
Between 7.9% and 11.1% of the purchase price on the median flat, depending on borough: 18,830 pounds in Barking and Dagenham, 45,800 in Tower Hamlets, 81,800 in Westminster and 103,550 in Kensington and Chelsea.
What counts as non-resident for UK stamp duty?
Being present in the UK for fewer than 183 days in the twelve months before the purchase. It is a day count, not a question of citizenship, visa or domicile.