From April 2028, homes in England worth over £2m pay a yearly surcharge, on their value at April 2026. For tens of thousands of homes near the line, that value is too close to call.
Value your home → How values on a date work
| Value at April 2026 | A year |
|---|---|
| £2m to £2.5m | £2,500 |
| £2.5m to £3.5m | £3,500 |
| £3.5m to £5m | £5,000 |
| Over £5m | £7,500 |
Paid on top of council tax from 1 April 2028, rising with inflation from 2029-30. Source: GOV.UK, High Value Council Tax Surcharge.
Most homes now over £2m last sold about 15 years ago. We took 8,063 homes that sold again in 2025 and 2026, carried each one's previous sale price forward with its council's price index for its type of home, and compared the result with what it really sold for.
| Years since the previous sale | Estimate against the price |
|---|---|
| Under 5 years | −3% |
| 5 to 10 years | 0% |
| 10 to 15 years | +11% |
| 15 to 20 years | +17% |
| Over 20 years | +26% |
An area's average price also rises because the homes being sold change, not only because each home gains value. So the longer ago a home last sold, the more an indexed old price overstates it. For a home near £2m, that is the difference between paying and not paying.
Councils with at least 300 homes within 10% of £2m at April 2026, to the nearest 10.
| Council | £1.8m to £2.2m | Over £2m |
|---|---|---|
| Westminster | 3,650 | 12,350 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 2,870 | 12,720 |
| Wandsworth | 2,500 | 4,650 |
| Richmond upon Thames | 2,140 | 4,100 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 1,930 | 3,850 |
| Camden | 1,920 | 5,240 |
| Islington | 1,420 | 2,350 |
| Buckinghamshire | 1,420 | 2,260 |
| Elmbridge | 1,360 | 3,030 |
| Haringey | 1,340 | 2,010 |
| Lambeth | 1,150 | 1,840 |
| Barnet | 1,150 | 2,380 |
| Southwark | 980 | 1,720 |
| Hackney | 940 | 960 |
| Ealing | 810 | 1,130 |
| Merton | 780 | 2,350 |
| St Albans | 700 | 930 |
| Brent | 630 | 1,060 |
| Guildford | 610 | 850 |
| Hounslow | 610 | 1,340 |
| Waverley | 600 | 940 |
| Bromley | 580 | 750 |
| Windsor and Maidenhead | 540 | 1,070 |
| Sevenoaks | 460 | 750 |
| Three Rivers | 430 | 600 |
| Epping Forest | 370 | 470 |
| Chichester | 350 | 580 |
| South Oxfordshire | 340 | 550 |
| Hertsmere | 340 | 540 |
| Oxford | 330 | 600 |
| Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | 330 | 630 |
| Reigate and Banstead | 320 | 450 |
| Trafford | 320 | 560 |
| Kingston upon Thames | 310 | 550 |
| Greenwich | 310 | 410 |
| Cambridge | 300 | 480 |
Homes that have not sold since 1995 are not included, so the counts are a floor. The Office for Budget Responsibility expects about 165,000 homes to pay. Our count of homes over £2m is about 94,000.
Our valuations don't rely on an old price: each home is valued from its own size, type, energy certificate and location, and blended with recent comparable sales. Tested on homes that sold for £2m to £3m, they were typically 9% from the price, and 87% of the homes we valued over £2m sold for over £2m.
Evidence of market value with its method, data and measured accuracy. It is not a RICS Red Book valuation, and it is not tax or legal advice. Data: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (open-market sales); the energy performance certificate register; Houseprice.AI price indices.