Buying Property on a Spouse Visa: Stamp Duty and Mortgages
Buying a home while on the partner route. What is settled law — the residence test for stamp duty, the married-couple rule, the reclaim window — and what is a matter for individual lenders rather than for the Immigration Rules.
- Section
- Spouse & Partner Visa
- Reading time
- 9 min
- Last checked
- 3 September 2026
- Source
- The published Immigration Rules and GOV.UK guidance, linked throughout this guide.
- Rowan does not
- Look at your own case, tell you which route to choose, or say what the Home Office will decide. This guide shows the published rules and where to read them.
In short
- No immigration rule restricts property ownership on this route.
- The 2% non-resident surcharge turns on 183 days of presence in the 12 months before the purchase, not on your visa.
- If a couple buys together, are not separated, and one is UK resident for the transaction, both are treated as UK resident.
- The surcharge can be reclaimed within 2 years if the presence test is later met over a continuous 365-day period.
- Stamp Duty Land Tax applies in England and Northern Ireland only.
- Owning a home can evidence the accommodation requirement but is never required to meet it.
- Mortgage terms for visa holders are set by individual lenders; GOV.UK publishes nothing on them.
Immigration status does not restrict property ownership, and it is not what decides the stamp duty surcharge either. That turns on a 183-day presence test, and where a couple buys together and one of them is UK resident, both are treated as UK resident for the transaction. Mortgage lending is the part with no published rule at all: each lender sets its own policy and none of it is government guidance.
There is no immigration question here
Nothing in the Immigration Rules restricts who may buy or own residential property in the UK, and permission granted as a partner carries no condition about it. The conditions attached to the grant are about work in the fiancé case and about recourse to public funds in every case. Property is not among them.
What follows is therefore tax and lending, not immigration law, and the two behave very differently: one is published in detail by HMRC, the other is not published by government at all.
The stamp duty surcharge, and what actually triggers it
Since 1 April 2021 a surcharge applies to purchases of residential property in England and Northern Ireland by non-UK residents. GOV.UK states the rate as: "The rates are 2 percentage points higher than those that apply to purchases made by UK residents."
The test is a day count, not a status:
"Individual buyers are non-UK resident in relation to the transaction if they are not present in the UK for at least 183 days during the 12 months before their purchase."
That is why immigration status is the wrong thing to look at from either direction. Someone on a spouse visa who has been living in the UK all year is UK resident for this purpose. Someone with indefinite leave to remain who has spent most of the year abroad may not be.
The rule for couples
This is the part most likely to change the answer, and it is stated plainly:
"If one of you is UK resident in relation to the transaction then you are both treated as UK resident in relation to the transaction."
It applies to married couples and civil partners who are not separated, where neither is acting as a trustee. A couple buying together where the sponsoring partner is UK resident is therefore treated as UK resident for the whole transaction.
Reclaiming it
If the surcharge is paid and the presence test is met afterwards, GOV.UK allows a claim. An individual purchaser may reclaim it if they are present in the UK for at least 183 days during any continuous 365-day period falling within the 2-year window that begins 364 days before the transaction date and ends 365 days after it. The claim must be filed within two years of the purchase.
The underlying rates
The surcharge sits on top of the standard residential rates, which GOV.UK gives as:
- up to £125,000 — zero
- £125,001 to £250,000 — 2%
- £250,001 to £925,000 — 5%
- £925,001 to £1.5 million — 10%
- above £1.5 million — 12%
First-time buyers pay nothing up to £300,000 and 5% on the portion from £300,001 to £500,000, with the relief unavailable if the price is above £500,000. An additional residential property usually carries 5% on top of the standard rates, unless the new property replaces a main residence sold within 36 months of completion.
Stamp Duty Land Tax applies in England and Northern Ireland. Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales charges Land Transaction Tax; both are set by their own governments, with their own thresholds and their own treatment of additional and non-resident purchases.
Mortgages: what is and is not published
This is the honest position. There is no government rule about lending to people on visas, no published minimum deposit, no published minimum remaining permission, and no list of lenders who will or will not lend. Every figure circulating on this subject comes from a broker, a lender, or somebody's experience — none of it from GOV.UK.
What is true, and is the reason the question arises at all, is that lenders assess immigration status as part of their own affordability and risk checks, and that those checks differ between lenders. A couple buying jointly where one partner is a British citizen or settled is assessing a different application from one where neither is. Beyond that, the terms are a commercial matter between the borrower and the lender, and Rowan has no figures to give.
Our entry on buying property on a work visa covers the same ground for sponsored routes.
Property and the accommodation requirement
The requirement, at paragraph E-LTRP.3.4 of Appendix FM, is that there is adequate accommodation for the family without recourse to public funds, which they own or occupy exclusively, and which is not overcrowded and does not contravene public health regulations.
Owning the home makes the evidence simpler: the deeds or the mortgage statement establish the right to occupy, where a tenant would need the tenancy agreement or a letter from the landlord. But the rule says "own or occupy", and renting or living with family satisfies it on the same terms. Buying property is not a step towards meeting an immigration requirement. Our accommodation entry sets out the overcrowding test, which has a statutory meaning rather than an impression.
Related entries
Questions and answers
Can I buy a house in the UK on a spouse visa?
Yes. No immigration rule restricts who may own property in the UK, and the partner route carries no condition about it. The questions that do arise are about tax and about mortgage lending, neither of which is immigration law.
Do I pay the 2% non-resident stamp duty surcharge?
It depends on days present in the UK, not on your visa. HMRC's test is that you are non-UK resident for a transaction if you were not present in the UK for at least 183 days during the 12 months before the purchase. Crucially for couples: 'If one of you is UK resident in relation to the transaction then you are both treated as UK resident', where you are not separated and neither is acting as a trustee.
Can I get the surcharge back?
Sometimes. GOV.UK says an individual purchaser may reclaim the surcharge if they are present in the UK for at least 183 days during any continuous 365-day period falling in the 2-year window that starts 364 days before the transaction and ends 365 days after it. The claim has to be made within two years of the purchase.
Does owning a home help my visa application?
It is not a requirement and it does not create one. It can make the accommodation requirement simpler to evidence, because the deeds or mortgage statement do the work a landlord's letter would otherwise do. Renting or living with family meets that requirement equally, so long as the accommodation is not overcrowded and does not contravene public health regulations.
Does stamp duty apply everywhere in the UK?
No. Stamp Duty Land Tax, including the non-resident surcharge, applies to residential property in England and Northern Ireland. Scotland has Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales has Land Transaction Tax, each with its own rates and its own rules on additional and non-resident purchases.
This guide is general information about published immigration rules. It is not advice about an individual application under s.82 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and Rowan is not regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority. Immigration rules change several times a year. For advice on a particular situation, contact an adviser authorised by the Immigration Advice Authority or an immigration solicitor. Always check GOV.UK for the authoritative current rules.