Moving home in Scotland
Every mainstream calculator answers what a lender will lend. Below is the other question, worked through for a home mover in Scotland: which of the three limits runs out first, what is still theirs each month once the payment goes out, and what changes when the fixed rate ends and they take a new one.
Two incomes, a house to sell with a mortgage on it, and an existing fixed rate worth carrying across to the new property.
- Household income
- £108,000
- Take-home, combined
- £6,350 a month
- Living costs
- £2,900 a month
- Saving they intend to keep
- £450 a month
- Sale price
- £320,000
- Mortgage outstanding
- £185,000
- Maximum loan to value
- 90%
£572,200
£2,600 a month over 25 years — £185,000 carried across at 4.20%, £277,233 of new borrowing at 4.89%
£3,267
51% of take-home, up from 41%
The limit they meet is what they can pay each month — not the other two. At that price £200 a month is still theirs, with the £450 saving going out on top of it.
Note what those two figures mean together: on a new deal at that rate the repayment rises by £667 a month while only £200 is spare, leaving them £467 a month short unless something else changes. The headline price is not wrong. It is just not the whole question.
That payment is two loans, not one rate. £185,000 is the existing mortgage carried across at 4.20% and £277,233 is new borrowing at 4.89% — which is the largest single lever in this model and the thing generic calculators leave out. Two caveats travel with it: a lender will usually port the rate but assess the top-up on its own terms and can decline that part, and when the deal ends the whole balance is repriced together on whatever comes next. That second point is what the£3,267 above is showing.
Change these figures to yoursOpens the tool with this example loaded. The arithmetic runs in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Land and Buildings Transaction Tax in Scotland
LBTT · verified 13 August 2026
LBTT replaced Stamp Duty Land Tax in Scotland in 2015. It is set at Holyrood rather than Westminster, so it moves at the Scottish Budget in December or January rather than at the UK one.
On the £572,200 above, the tax is £30,567 — and it comes out of the same cash as the deposit rather than being borrowed, which is why it lowers the price this household can reach rather than simply being a bill at the end.
- up to £145,0000%
- up to £250,0002%
- up to £325,0005%
- up to £750,00010%
- above that12%
The same household, priced elsewhere
Identical income, identical savings, identical monthly costs — only the region changes. The gap is the tax regime, and for a home mover it is worth this much:
- Scotland£572,200this page
- England & Northern Ireland£583,600£11,400 more
- Wales£578,800£6,700 more
Rates from the Bank of England quoted household interest rates, two-year fixed, as at 31 July 2026. Purchase tax verified 13 August 2026.
Other situations in Scotland
This describes what happens to one illustrative set of figures. It is not advice, not a personal recommendation and not a mortgage illustration. A lender will run its own affordability assessment and may lend more or less than the figure above.
Work it out with your own figures