Every one of Wales's 22 council areas recorded a 2025 median sale price below the point where Land Transaction Tax (LTT) starts costing more than England's Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on an identical purchase. That point is £350,000, where both taxes currently charge exactly £7,500 on a standard purchase (Homecost's stamp duty calculator, verified live). Monmouthshire, the most expensive Welsh council by 2025 median price, came closest — £315,500, which is £34,500 short of the line.
The figures below are 2025 medians from 41,401 standard-price-paid Land Registry sales (category A, detached, semi-detached, terraced and flats) across all 22 Welsh unitary authorities, fetched 23 October 2026. Each council's LTT and SDLT figures are its own median run through Homecost's tax engine for a standard home-mover purchase — no first-time-buyer relief (Wales does not offer any) and no additional-property surcharge.
All 22 councils, ranked by 2025 median
| Council | 2025 sales | Median sale price | LTT (Wales) | SDLT (England, same price) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monmouthshire | 1,342 | £315,500 | £5,430 | £5,775 |
| Vale of Glamorgan | 2,031 | £285,000 | £3,600 | £4,250 |
| Cardiff | 4,650 | £270,000 | £2,700 | £3,500 |
| Powys | 1,537 | £250,000 | £1,500 | £2,500 |
| Newport | 2,378 | £240,000 | £900 | £2,300 |
| Isle of Anglesey | 858 | £225,000 | £0 | £2,000 |
| Ceredigion | 871 | £225,000 | £0 | £2,000 |
| Pembrokeshire | 1,728 | £222,750 | £0 | £1,955 |
| Flintshire | 2,237 | £220,000 | £0 | £1,900 |
| Conwy | 1,950 | £218,000 | £0 | £1,860 |
| Bridgend | 2,065 | £215,000 | £0 | £1,800 |
| Swansea | 3,061 | £210,000 | £0 | £1,700 |
| Wrexham | 1,635 | £200,000 | £0 | £1,500 |
| Carmarthenshire | 2,402 | £200,000 | £0 | £1,500 |
| Torfaen | 1,162 | £200,000 | £0 | £1,500 |
| Denbighshire | 1,340 | £199,950 | £0 | £1,499 |
| Gwynedd | 1,540 | £195,000 | £0 | £1,400 |
| Caerphilly | 2,229 | £192,000 | £0 | £1,340 |
| Neath Port Talbot | 1,856 | £165,000 | £0 | £800 |
| Rhondda Cynon Taf | 3,088 | £164,995 | £0 | £800 |
| Merthyr Tydfil | 647 | £145,000 | £0 | £400 |
| Blaenau Gwent | 794 | £140,000 | £0 | £300 |
At every single median in this table, LTT is lower than or equal to the SDLT a buyer would owe at the same price in England. There is no council here where the Welsh tax currently costs more.
Seventeen councils pay nothing at all
Wales's nil-rate band for LTT runs to £225,000 — above England's £125,000 nil-rate band for a standard purchase. Seventeen of the 22 councils had a 2025 median at or below that £225,000 line, meaning a typical home mover there owes £0 in Land Transaction Tax. The same buyer, purchasing the identical home in England, would owe Stamp Duty of somewhere between £300 (at Blaenau Gwent's £140,000 median) and £2,000 (at the Isle of Anglesey and Ceredigion's shared £225,000 median).
Rhondda Cynon Taf and Neath Port Talbot, the two largest councils in that group by sales volume, both cleared the zero-rate band comfortably — their 2025 medians of £164,995 and £165,000 sit £60,000 below the £225,000 line.
Why the gap narrows as the price rises
England and Wales do not use the same slab structure, which is why the comparison is not a fixed percentage gap. England's SDLT charges 0% to £125,000, then 2% to £250,000, then 5% to £925,000. Wales's LTT charges 0% to £225,000, then 6% to £400,000, then 7.5% to £750,000. Wales's marginal rate overtakes England's as soon as a sale crosses £225,000, which is why the gap between the two taxes narrows steadily as price rises through the five highest-median councils in the table above — from £2,000 cheaper in Wales at £225,000 to just £345 cheaper at Monmouthshire's £315,500.
Extend the same two slab structures further and they cross at exactly £350,000, where both currently charge £7,500 — a threshold detailed in our breakdown of the exact SDLT, LTT and LBTT crossover prices. No Welsh council's 2025 median reached it. Whether one will depends on future price movements Homecost does not forecast — this is a snapshot of where 2025's sales actually landed, not a prediction of where they are heading.
What this does and doesn't show
These are council-wide medians, not valuations of any individual home, and they describe a standard home-mover purchase only. Wales has no first-time-buyer relief, so an eligible first-time buyer would pay less in several of the English comparisons used here — how the Welsh and English first-time-buyer positions compare covers that gap on its own terms. An additional-property purchase (a second home or buy-to-let) carries a surcharge in both nations that is not included in the figures above. For the full four-nation picture, including Scotland's Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, see Homecost's SDLT, LBTT and LTT comparison.
This is general information, not advice. A conveyancer or tax adviser can confirm the exact Land Transaction Tax or Stamp Duty position for a specific purchase.
Try it: look up NP19 0DH, a residential postcode in Newport — the council fifth-closest to the £350,000 crossover — to see last recorded sale prices and the all-in cost of buying there today. Swansea's own districts carry the same LTT-versus-SDLT comparison down to postcode level, and more council-by-council data sits under Homecost's Regional Prices guides.
Based on 41,401 HM Land Registry sales across Wales's 22 councils in 2025, and Homecost's tax engine run against the 2026 LTT and SDLT rate tables, fetched 23 October 2026. More on sources and method on the Homecost blog.