In 2025, 1,590 of the 4,343 standard residential sales recorded in South Gloucestershire (36.6%) 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). In neighbouring Bristol the share was 34.5%, but the two councils reach the line differently. Flats were 13.7% of South Gloucestershire sales against 30.3% in Bristol, and among houses the widest gap is in terraces, whose median was £299,950 in South Gloucestershire and £377,250 in Bristol. Eight of the 39 postcode sectors with enough sales to measure had a median at or under the line, and none of the eight is flat-led.
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, counting only postcodes inside South Gloucestershire Council's area. They complete Bristol districts where first-time buyers pay no stamp duty, 2026, which counted only Bristol's side of the districts the boundary cuts through. Average house price in Bristol 2026 gave £335,000 on 4,061 sales for South Gloucestershire when fetched on 18 June; the file now holds 4,343 for 2025, and this guide uses that count.
What the £300,000 line means
In England, first-time buyer relief charges 0% on the first £300,000 and 5% on the slice from £300,001 to £500,000, and is not available above £500,000. Everyone buying has to be a first-time buyer (HMRC). SDLT is set nationally, so the rates are identical on both sides of a council boundary; the mechanics are in Stamp Duty first-time buyer relief explained (UK 2026) and First-Time Buyer Stamp Duty Taper: £300k to £500k in 2026. Until 31 March 2025 the ceiling was £425,000 (HMRC), so this guide tests all 2025 prices against today's £300,000 line, not the rules in force at each completion; the April-to-December figures, wholly under the current rules, are the cleaner comparison.
Where South Gloucestershire's 2025 sales landed
| Price band | Sales | Share of sales | Bristol's share | Tax for an eligible first-time buyer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £125,000 or under | 66 | 1.5% | 1.5% | £0 (standard rates also £0) |
| £125,001 to £250,000 | 704 | 16.2% | 17.2% | £0 |
| £250,001 to £300,000 | 820 | 18.9% | 15.8% | £0 |
| £300,001 to £400,000 | 1,400 | 32.2% | 30.2% | up to £5,000 |
| £400,001 to £500,000 | 717 | 16.5% | 16.4% | £5,000 to £10,000 |
| Over £500,000 | 636 | 14.6% | 18.9% | standard rates, no relief |
The South Gloucestershire median was £340,000 (houses £355,000, flats £205,000). At £340,000 an eligible first-time buyer owes £2,000 against £7,000 at standard rates; at Bristol's £350,000 median the figures are £2,500 and £7,500. Of the sales at or under the line, 90 (2.1% of all sales) were at exactly £300,000.
Houses and flats: where the two councils differ
Like for like, South Gloucestershire's prices were lower: the house median (detached, semi-detached and terraced together) was 6.6% below Bristol's and the flat median 22.6% below. The all-type median was only 2.9% lower because the mix differs: detached and semi-detached houses were 56.2% of South Gloucestershire's sales against 28.1% in Bristol, and flats 13.7% against 30.3%.
| Type | South Gloucestershire: share of sales | Median | At or under £300,000 | Bristol: share of sales | Median | At or under £300,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | 23.9% | £500,000 | 4.1% | 5.1% | £544,665 | 8.0% |
| Semi-detached | 32.4% | £354,000 | 21.5% | 23.1% | £365,025 | 23.0% |
| Terraced | 30.0% | £299,950 | 53.6% | 41.5% | £377,250 | 22.4% |
| Flat | 13.7% | £205,000 | 91.6% | 30.3% | £265,000 | 64.3% |
Among houses the widest gap is in terraces: their median was 20.5% lower in South Gloucestershire, against 3.0% for semi-detached and 8.2% for detached, and 53.6% of terraced sales were at or under £300,000 compared with 22.4% in Bristol. Flats were the other route: 546 of 596 flat sales (91.6%) were at or under the line, 527 of them leasehold, but flats were 34.3% of South Gloucestershire's sales at or under £300,000 against 56.5% in Bristol.
The eight sectors at or under £300,000
A postcode sector is the outcode plus the first digit of the incode, so "BS37 4" is a neighbourhood-sized slice of BS37. Of the 46 sectors with 2025 sales, 39 had at least 30 (together 4,237 of the 4,343 sales). Eight of the 39 had a median at or under £300,000, against 12 of 52 in Bristol.
| Sector | Most common Land Registry locality | Sales | Median | Flat share | House median (house sales) | 2024 median | Apr-Dec 2025 median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BS37 8 | Yate | 112 | £277,250 | 0.0% | £277,250 (112) | £275,000 | £280,000 |
| BS37 4 | Yate | 145 | £280,000 | 16.6% | £285,000 (121) | £268,500 | £285,000 |
| BS15 8 | Kingswood | 142 | £281,300 | 33.8% | £315,000 (94) | £300,000 | £282,600 |
| BS15 1 | Kingswood | 75 | £292,000 | 16.0% | £299,950 (63) | £288,400 | £292,000 |
| BS35 4 | Severn Beach | 74 | £294,000 | 9.5% | £300,000 (67) | £322,500 | £295,000 |
| BS15 4 | Kingswood | 182 | £295,000 | 16.5% | £305,000 (152) | £300,000 | £296,250 |
| BS34 5 | Patchway | 173 | £295,500 | 21.4% | £310,000 (136) | £268,000 | £292,000 |
| BS16 4 | Staple Hill | 74 | £300,000 | 17.6% | £310,000 (61) | £300,000 | £294,500 |
Sector medians need at least 30 sales in each period. Localities are the most common entry in the Land Registry's locality field, which is blank on many records.
Seven of the eight are house-led, with flats under 25% of sales; BS15 8 is mixed (33.8% flats) and none is flat-led (75% or more flats), whereas four of Bristol's 12 were. Only four of the 38 South Gloucestershire sectors with at least 30 house sales had a house median at or under £300,000: BS37 8 (£277,250, with no flat sales at all), BS37 4 (£285,000), BS15 1 (£299,950) and BS35 4 (£300,000), against five of 44 in Bristol. In BS15 8, BS15 4, BS34 5 and BS16 4 the house median is £305,000 to £315,000, and the flats pull the all-type median to or below the line. At those eight medians an eligible first-time buyer owes £0, against £3,863 to £5,000 at standard rates.
Seven of the eight were also at or under £300,000 across 2024 (BS35 4 was £322,500) and all eight were in April to December 2025, though BS16 4 sat exactly on the line in 2025 and 2024, and BS15 8 and BS15 4 did in 2024. The eight hold 977 sales, 604 of them at or under £300,000 (61.8%), and only 3 were new-build, so new-build schemes do not drive the result. Against the old £425,000 ceiling, 35 of the 39 sectors had a median at or under it; see First-time buyer stamp duty relief: before and after April 2025.
Same postcode district, different council
BS15, BS16, BS10 and BS7 are each cut by the boundary, and South Gloucestershire holds most of BS15 and BS16. The Bristol guide's rows for those districts therefore described 148 of BS15's 783 sales and 397 of BS16's 1,241.
| District | Council | Sales | Median | At or under £300,000 | New-build share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BS15 | South Gloucestershire | 635 | £305,000 | 48.8% | 0.5% |
| BS15 | Bristol | 148 | £303,250 | 49.3% | 0.0% |
| BS16 | South Gloucestershire | 844 | £350,500 | 32.7% | 5.3% |
| BS16 | Bristol | 397 | £330,000 | 34.8% | 0.0% |
| BS10 | South Gloucestershire | 128 | £403,998 | 21.9% | 93.8% |
| BS10 | Bristol | 303 | £320,000 | 41.9% | 2.6% |
| BS7 | South Gloucestershire | 36 | £349,000 | 27.8% | 0.0% |
| BS7 | Bristol | 520 | £425,000 | 21.5% | 1.3% |
With both councils together, the 2025 medians were BS15 £305,000 (783 sales), BS16 £345,000 (1,241), BS10 £345,000 (431) and BS7 £415,000 (556). South Gloucestershire supplied 81.1% of BS15's sales and 68.0% of BS16's.
BS15 is close to identical on both sides (£305,000 and £303,250). BS16 is not: the South Gloucestershire side's median was £350,500 against £330,000, £20,500 (6.2%) higher. The South Gloucestershire part of BS10 is a new-build sample, with 93.8% of its 128 sales flagged as new-build, so its median describes new homes rather than the district's resale market, and the 36 sales in the South Gloucestershire part of BS7 are too few to characterise.
Seven sectors have at least 30 sales on each side of the boundary.
| Sector | Bristol sales | Bristol median | South Gloucestershire sales | South Gloucestershire median | Whole-sector sales | Whole-sector median | Whole sector at or under £300,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BS10 7 | 84 | £301,750 | 116 | £399,998 | 200 | £367,500 | 34.5% |
| BS15 1 | 110 | £300,000 | 75 | £292,000 | 185 | £295,000 | 57.3% |
| BS15 8 | 31 | £305,000 | 142 | £281,300 | 173 | £290,000 | 60.1% |
| BS16 1 | 74 | £337,500 | 109 | £347,000 | 183 | £340,000 | 35.5% |
| BS16 2 | 126 | £350,000 | 45 | £442,000 | 171 | £365,000 | 28.7% |
| BS16 4 | 67 | £322,000 | 74 | £300,000 | 141 | £309,500 | 45.4% |
| BS7 0 | 153 | £358,000 | 36 | £349,000 | 189 | £357,500 | 29.6% |
In BS15 1, BS15 8 and BS16 4 the South Gloucestershire slice sits at or under £300,000 while the Bristol slice sits at or above it. BS15 8 shows why the boundary matters: taken whole, the sector's median is £290,000 (60.1% of its 173 sales at or under the line), but its Bristol slice has only 31 sales and a median of £305,000, so it did not appear in the Bristol guide's list of 12 sectors. BS16 4 reaches the line on the South Gloucestershire side only; the whole sector's median is £309,500. The same lesson, that a postcode district is not a council, is set out for SL5 around Ascot in Ascot SL5 House Prices 2026: 28% of Sales Reached £1m.
Beyond stamp duty: council tax across the boundary
Stamp duty is a one-off cost; council tax recurs, and it is set by each authority. The 2026-27 Band D charge is £2,550.59 in South Gloucestershire and £2,713.68 in Bristol, a difference of £163.09 a year (Bristol's is 6.4% higher). North Somerset's is £2,491.22, Bath and North East Somerset's is £2,383.42, and the mean across 296 English authorities is £2,410.97 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government). Band D is a benchmark: a property's bill depends on its valuation band, A to H, which in England reflects 1991 values, and it cannot be inferred from a sale price. See Council Tax Bands Explained: How Your Bill Is Set in 2026.
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 sector 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. The UK House Price Index put South Gloucestershire prices 2.3% higher in June 2026 than in June 2025 (index 102.2 against 99.9), so 2025 medians are a year old. Counts in the Land Registry file also rise as late registrations are added.
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.
Check a postcode yourself
Homecost shows what was paid on individual streets and the all-in monthly cost of a postcode. Try BS37 8TD in Yate or BS15 1TY in Kingswood, and run other prices through Homecost's stamp duty calculator.
For the wider picture, see Bath vs Bristol: the true cost of buying and running a home 2026 and The true cost of buying a £300,000 home in the UK in 2026. The same sector approach for London is in Only 5 London Postcode Sectors Have a £300k-or-Less Median, 2026, and the unitary-authority picture is in First-time buyer stamp duty by English unitary authority 2026. More area guides are in Regional Prices.
Medians of an even number of sales are the midpoint of the two middle prices, and money figures are rounded to the nearest pound. Based on 4,343 HM Land Registry transactions in South Gloucestershire in 2025 (8,592 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.