Of the 6,910 Welsh homes that sold for more than £350,000 in 2025, 5,148 — 74.5% — were detached houses, according to HM Land Registry Price Paid data. That's far higher than detached houses' 29.8% share of the Welsh market overall, and it means the buyers actually paying Wales's Land Transaction Tax (LTT) at its highest effective rates are heavily skewed towards one property type.
£350,000 is the price point where Wales's LTT stops being cheaper than England's Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) and starts costing the same or more, as an earlier analysis of the 2025 sales register set out. That piece found 83.1% of Welsh sales fell at or below the line. This one asks who is actually on each side of it.
Terraces and flats cluster in the nil-rate band; detached houses cluster at the top
LTT's nil-rate band runs to £225,000 — £100,000 higher than SDLT's £125,000 threshold — so a large share of Welsh sales pay no property tax at all. In 2025, 21,917 sales (53.6% of the total) fell at or below that line, and terraced houses and flats are overrepresented within it. Detached houses run the opposite way.
| Property type | Share of all 2025 Welsh sales | Share at/below £225,000 (nil-rate) | Share above £350,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | 29.8% | 8.9% | 74.5% |
| Semi-detached | 30.3% | 32.2% | 15.3% |
| Terraced | 32.5% | 47.4% | 7.9% |
| Flats | 6.9% | 11.0% | 1.3% |
| Other | 0.5% | 0.4% | 1.0% |
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, standard price-paid transactions in Wales with a sale date in 2025 (n=40,925 total; n=21,917 at/below £225,000; n=6,910 above £350,000). Fetched 14 September 2026.
Terraced houses are around 1.5 times more common in the nil-rate band than in the market as a whole (47.4% versus 32.5%); flats are around 1.6 times more common (11.0% versus 6.9%). Detached houses move the other way — they're under a third as common below £225,000 as they are across the market overall (8.9% versus 29.8%), and two and a half times more common above £350,000.
Why: it comes down to the median price for each type
The pattern tracks median sale price closely. Land Registry data for 2025 puts the Welsh median price for each property type at:
| Property type | 2025 median price (Wales) | LTT at that price (mover) | SDLT at that price (mover) | Wales vs England |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | £327,500 | £6,150 | £6,375 | Wales £225 cheaper |
| Other | £255,000 | £1,800 | £2,750 | Wales £950 cheaper |
| Semi-detached | £215,000 | £0 | £1,800 | Wales £1,800 cheaper |
| Terraced | £164,950 | £0 | £799 | Wales £799 cheaper |
| Flats | £145,000 | £0 | £400 | Wales £400 cheaper |
LTT and SDLT figures calculated for a standard home-mover — not a first-time buyer, not an additional property — at each type's 2025 Welsh median price, using published HMRC and Welsh Revenue Authority rate tables. Fetched 14 September 2026.
Every property type's median price still sits on the cheaper side of the £350,000 line — but by very different margins. A buyer paying the median price for a semi-detached house saves £1,800 against the English equivalent; a buyer paying the median price for a detached house saves just £225, because £327,500 sits only £22,500 below the point where that saving disappears entirely. Half of all detached sales, by definition, go for more than that median — so a large share of Welsh detached buyers are at, or past, the point where LTT no longer beats SDLT.
A market pattern, not a reason to buy one type of home over another
This isn't a case for choosing one property type over another — Land Transaction Tax is one line in a much larger cost picture that includes deposit size, mortgage rate and ongoing running costs, and it applies however a specific purchase happens to be taxed. What the data shows is that Wales's tax advantage over England isn't spread evenly across the market: it's concentrated in the terraced and flat segment that dominates transactions below £225,000, and it thins out — or reverses — for the detached houses that dominate the market above £350,000.
The gap between the two tax schedules is set independently by two separate authorities — the Welsh Revenue Authority and HMRC — and the £350,000 crossover is a coincidence of where those schedules intersect, not a deliberate policy line. For the full band-by-band mechanics of how LTT and SDLT compare, including how the crossover point shifts for second homes, see Homecost's comparison of the SDLT, LTT and LBTT surcharge crossovers; for how Wales's £225,000–£400,000 bands shape asking prices in the first place, see why Welsh house prices bunch at round numbers.
To check the tax due on a specific purchase, try Homecost's stamp duty and Land Transaction Tax calculator with the actual price, or search a Welsh postcode — for example CF15 8HH in Radyr, on Cardiff's detached-heavy fringe — for a full cost breakdown including tax, typical mortgage cost and council tax. For more data-led analysis like this, browse Homecost's market analysis coverage.
This is general information based on published tax rates and Land Registry transaction data, not advice on any individual purchase. Speak to a qualified conveyancer or tax adviser before acting on stamp duty or Land Transaction Tax matters.