In 2025, 2,143 of the 6,211 standard residential sales recorded in Bristol City Council's area (34.5%) were at or under £300,000, the price up to which an eligible first-time buyer in England pays no Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT). The share is 64.3% for flats but 21.5% for houses, so in Bristol the £300,000 line is crossed as much by property type as by district: 12 of the 52 postcode sectors with enough sales to measure had an overall median at or under it, but only five had a house median that low.
The figures are HM Land Registry Price Paid Data for standard-price-paid (category A) sales of detached, semi-detached and terraced houses and flats between 1 January and 31 December 2025, fetched on 25 September 2026. Postcode districts do not follow council boundaries, so only postcodes inside Bristol City Council's area are counted. BS15 and BS16 sit mostly in South Gloucestershire, and parts of BS7, BS8, BS10 and BS14 are in neighbouring authorities, so those rows describe the Bristol side only.
What the £300,000 line means
In England, first-time buyer relief charges 0% on the first £300,000 of the price and 5% on the slice from £300,001 to £500,000. Above £500,000 the relief is not available and the standard rates apply to the whole price. Everyone buying has to be a first-time buyer to qualify (HMRC). The table shows the tax at seven prices, taken from Homecost's SDLT calculator, which follows the HMRC rates. The mechanics are set out in Stamp Duty first-time buyer relief explained (UK 2026).
| Purchase price | Eligible first-time buyer | Standard rates | Relief |
|---|---|---|---|
| £125,000 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| £250,000 | £0 | £2,500 | £2,500 |
| £300,000 | £0 | £5,000 | £5,000 |
| £350,000 | £2,500 | £7,500 | £5,000 |
| £400,000 | £5,000 | £10,000 | £5,000 |
| £500,000 | £10,000 | £15,000 | £5,000 |
| £500,001 | £15,000 | £15,000 | £0 |
Relief removes £5,000 of tax at every price from £300,000 to £500,000, then nothing at £500,001. The slice between the two prices is covered in First-Time Buyer Stamp Duty Taper: £300k to £500k in 2026.
Where Bristol's 2025 sales landed
| Price band | Sales | Share of sales | Tax for an eligible first-time buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| £125,000 or under | 95 | 1.5% | £0 (standard rates also £0) |
| £125,001 to £250,000 | 1,067 | 17.2% | £0 |
| £250,001 to £300,000 | 981 | 15.8% | £0 |
| £300,001 to £400,000 | 1,877 | 30.2% | up to £5,000 |
| £400,001 to £500,000 | 1,019 | 16.4% | £5,000 to £10,000 |
| Over £500,000 | 1,172 | 18.9% | standard rates, no relief |
The Bristol-wide median was £350,000 (houses £380,000, flats £265,000). At £350,000 an eligible first-time buyer owes £2,500 against £7,500 at standard rates. The shares show where prices fell, not how many buyers claimed relief.
District by district
The 15 postcode districts with 2025 sales, ranked by overall median with the tax an eligible first-time buyer would owe at that price against standard rates.
| District | Sales | Median | Sales at or under £300,000 | SDLT at median: first-time buyer | SDLT at median: standard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BS1 | 203 | £290,000 | 53.2% | £0 | £4,500 |
| BS13 | 327 | £290,000 | 56.3% | £0 | £4,500 |
| BS2 | 204 | £291,250 | 52.0% | £0 | £4,563 |
| BS11 | 179 | £293,000 | 57.5% | £0 | £4,650 |
| BS14 | 363 | £300,000 | 50.1% | £0 | £5,000 |
| BS15 | 148 | £303,250 | 49.3% | £163 | £5,163 |
| BS10 | 303 | £320,000 | 41.9% | £1,000 | £6,000 |
| BS4 | 690 | £324,000 | 43.3% | £1,200 | £6,200 |
| BS16 | 397 | £330,000 | 34.8% | £1,500 | £6,500 |
| BS5 | 763 | £339,500 | 31.6% | £1,975 | £6,975 |
| BS3 | 808 | £397,250 | 29.3% | £4,863 | £9,863 |
| BS8 | 360 | £420,000 | 20.6% | £6,000 | £11,000 |
| BS7 | 520 | £425,000 | 21.5% | £6,250 | £11,250 |
| BS6 | 497 | £475,000 | 18.7% | £8,750 | £13,750 |
| BS9 | 449 | £612,000 | 14.7% | £20,600 | £20,600 |
Median sale prices from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, 2025, Bristol City Council area only. Tax figures from Homecost's SDLT calculator (England), rounded to the nearest pound.
Five districts have a median at or under £300,000 (BS1, BS13, BS2, BS11 and BS14, the last exactly on the line). Five more sit between £303,250 and £339,500, where an eligible first-time buyer at the median would owe £163 to £1,975 against £5,163 to £6,975 at standard rates. At BS9's £612,000 median the relief is not available, so both columns show £20,600.
The Land Registry's locality field is blank or simply "Bristol" on most records, so districts are identified by postcode. Where it names a place on at least 30 of a district's 2025 sales: Shirehampton (BS11), Kingswood (BS15), Fishponds (BS16), Brislington and St Annes Park (BS4), St George and Easton (BS5), Southville and Bedminster (BS3), Clifton (BS8), Horfield and Bishopston (BS7), Redland and St Andrews (BS6) and Westbury on Trym (BS9).
Flats and houses tell different stories
BS1 and BS13 share a £290,000 median for opposite reasons. BS1 is a flat market (95.6% of its sales were flats, with only nine house sales); BS13 is a house market, where flats were 10.1% of sales and 294 houses had a median of £300,000. Splitting every district by type shows the pattern.
| District | Flat sales | Flat median | Flats at or under £300,000 | House sales | House median | Houses at or under £300,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BS1 | 194 | £287,750 | 55.7% | 9 | £665,000 | 0.0% |
| BS13 | 33 | £176,000 | 100.0% | 294 | £300,000 | 51.4% |
| BS2 | 118 | £235,000 | 86.4% | 86 | £425,000 | 4.7% |
| BS11 | 19 | £185,000 | 94.7% | 160 | £299,975 | 53.1% |
| BS14 | 45 | £165,000 | 100.0% | 318 | £311,250 | 43.1% |
| BS15 | 25 | £185,000 | 96.0% | 123 | £310,000 | 39.8% |
| BS10 | 46 | £212,000 | 91.3% | 257 | £330,000 | 33.1% |
| BS4 | 150 | £215,000 | 90.7% | 540 | £360,000 | 30.2% |
| BS16 | 86 | £190,000 | 94.2% | 311 | £350,000 | 18.3% |
| BS5 | 126 | £210,000 | 96.0% | 637 | £350,000 | 18.8% |
| BS3 | 272 | £262,443 | 74.6% | 536 | £440,000 | 6.3% |
| BS8 | 278 | £360,500 | 26.3% | 82 | £785,000 | 1.2% |
| BS7 | 119 | £260,000 | 71.4% | 401 | £477,501 | 6.7% |
| BS6 | 264 | £345,000 | 34.1% | 233 | £750,000 | 1.3% |
| BS9 | 108 | £320,000 | 46.3% | 341 | £730,000 | 4.7% |
"House" means detached, semi-detached and terraced. Samples under 30 (BS1 houses, BS11 flats, BS15 flats) are indicative only.
Flats were 30.3% of Bristol's 2025 sales but 56.5% of the sales at or under £300,000 (1,211 of 2,143), and 1,200 of those 1,211 were leasehold. In nine of the 15 districts at least 86% of flat sales came in at or under the line; BS8 (26.3%) and BS6 (34.1%), with the dearest flats, are the exceptions. For houses the district matters far more: only BS11 (53.1%) and BS13 (51.4%) had more than half of their house sales at or under £300,000, while BS8, BS6, BS3, BS7, BS2 and BS9 were all under 7%.
The same type effect showed in Only 5 London Postcode Sectors Have a £300k-or-Less Median, 2026, where all five qualifying sectors were flat-led. Bristol's come in two kinds.
The 12 sectors at or under £300,000
A postcode sector is the outcode plus the first digit of the incode, so "BS13 0" is a neighbourhood-sized slice of BS13. The table lists every Bristol sector with at least 30 standard sales in 2025 whose median was at or under £300,000. Four sit exactly on the line.
| Sector | Sales | Median | Flat share | House median (house sales) | At or under £300,000 in 2024 | At or under £300,000 in Apr-Dec 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BS2 8 | 64 | £241,500 | 78.1% | £557,750 (14) | Yes | Yes |
| BS2 0 | 61 | £245,000 | 93.4% | £443,250 (4) | Yes | Yes |
| BS13 0 | 53 | £250,000 | 9.4% | £250,000 (48) | Yes | Yes |
| BS13 9 | 47 | £255,000 | 10.6% | £260,000 (42) | Yes | Yes |
| BS4 1 | 123 | £262,500 | 8.1% | £270,000 (113) | Yes | Yes |
| BS11 0 | 73 | £280,000 | 12.3% | £290,000 (64) | Yes | Yes |
| BS13 8 | 86 | £281,750 | 12.8% | £295,000 (75) | Yes | Yes |
| BS14 9 | 144 | £298,975 | 11.1% | £310,000 (128) | No | Yes |
| BS1 5 | 59 | £300,000 | 94.9% | £560,000 (3) | No | Yes |
| BS1 6 | 103 | £300,000 | 97.1% | £930,000 (3) | No | Yes |
| BS11 9 | 106 | £300,000 | 9.4% | £310,500 (96) | Yes | No |
| BS15 1 | 110 | £300,000 | 20.0% | £310,000 (88) | Yes | Yes |
Sector medians need at least 30 sales in each period tested. Every "No" rests on a measurable median: BS14 9 £309,000 in 2024, BS1 5 £325,000, BS1 6 £340,000, and BS11 9 £310,000 in April-December 2025. BS15 1 counts only its Bristol part (177 of its 286 postcodes; the other 109 are in South Gloucestershire).
Eight of the 12 are house-led, with flats making up 8% to 20% of sales and house medians of £250,000 to £310,500. Four (BS2 8, BS2 0, BS1 5 and BS1 6) are flat-led, with flats at 78% to 97% of sales and house samples of 14 or fewer. Only five of the 44 sectors with at least 30 house sales had a house median at or under £300,000: BS13 0 (£250,000), BS13 9 (£260,000), BS4 1 (£270,000), BS11 0 (£290,000) and BS13 8 (£295,000). By contrast, 16 of the 23 sectors with at least 30 flat sales had a flat median at or under the line.
The list is not fixed. Eight sectors (BS2 8, BS2 0, BS13 0, BS13 9, BS4 1, BS11 0, BS13 8 and BS15 1) appear in 2024, in all of 2025 and in April to December 2025. The April to December list has 13 sectors: BS11 9 drops out at £310,000, and BS14 8 (£293,750) and BS4 4 (£300,000) join.
How much narrower is £300,000 than the old ceiling?
Until 31 March 2025 the first-time buyer nil-rate ceiling was £425,000 and the eligibility cap £625,000, a temporary change that applied from 23 September 2022 (HMRC). Testing the same 2025 sales against the old price line compares prices, not qualifying sales: 4,380 (70.5%) were at or under £425,000 against 2,143 (34.5%) at £300,000, and 45 of the 52 measured sectors had a median at or under £425,000 against 12 at £300,000. The full picture is in First-time buyer stamp duty relief: before and after April 2025.
The share of Bristol sales at or under £300,000 was 38.0% in 2024 (2,223 of 5,849) and 34.5% in 2025. Among the 4,204 sales dated 1 April 2025 or later, when the £300,000 ceiling applied, it was 36.2% (1,520).
What the data cannot show
HM Land Registry records the price paid, not who bought, so the data cannot show how many first-time buyers bought in any district or whether relief was claimed. The medians describe completed 2025 sales, not asking prices or what is on the market now, and they are not valuations of any property. Small samples (the house counts in BS2 8, BS2 0, BS1 5 and BS1 6, the flat counts in the house-led sectors) are shown with their counts for that reason. The UK House Price Index put City of Bristol prices 3.5% higher in June 2026 than in June 2025 (index 101.2 against 97.8), so 2025 medians are a year old. Counts in the Land Registry file also rise slightly as late registrations are added, so figures fetched on other dates can differ marginally.
Whether relief applies depends on the buyers' circumstances, and HMRC's conditions include that everyone buying is a first-time buyer. A conveyancer confirms eligibility at completion. This is general information, not advice. Speak to a qualified adviser before acting.
Beyond stamp duty: Bristol's council tax
Stamp duty is a one-off cost; council tax recurs. Bristol's 2026-27 Band D charge is £2,713.68, which is £302.71 (12.6%) above the £2,410.97 mean across 296 English authorities (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government). Neighbouring South Gloucestershire's Band D is £2,550.59, £163.09 lower, which is one reason the council boundary matters for sectors such as BS15 1. Band D is a benchmark: a property's bill depends on its 1991 valuation band, A to H, and cannot be inferred from a sale price.
Check a postcode yourself
Homecost shows what was paid on individual streets and the all-in monthly cost of a postcode. Try BS13 0PY in a house-led sector or BS4 1FL, and run other prices through Homecost's stamp duty calculator.
For the wider picture, see Average house price in Bristol 2026: what buyers paid, Bath vs Bristol: the true cost of buying and running a home 2026 and the true cost of buying a £300k home. Other Bristol districts are covered in BS3 Bedminster flat prices 2026: what 272 sales show and BS7 flat prices 2026: Bishopston, Horfield & Ashley Down. The near-centre terraced-house test is in Where first-time buyers pay £0 stamp duty near the centre (2026), and the same sector approach for another city is in Where first-time buyers pay no stamp duty in Birmingham 2026. More area guides are in Regional Prices.
Based on 6,211 HM Land Registry transactions in Bristol in 2025 (12,060 across 2024-25) and 2026-27 council tax Band D for 296 English authorities. Data sources for every guide are listed on the Homecost blog.