Task
Pricing SDLT
Why it breaks
Manual lookup, stale thresholds, surcharges forgotten on second homes.
What PropertyLord AI does
HMRC-accurate SDLT auto-calculated from price and buyer type.
Spreadsheets vs PropertyLord AI
Still Using Excel for
Property Deals?
£8k+
SDLT missed on a
typical BTL, per deal.
Excel misses SDLT surcharges that cost £8k+ on a typical BTL. PropertyLord AI catches them in 30 seconds — with HMRC-accurate thresholds, not a formula you wrote in 2021.
Free. No sign-up. No card. Takes a postcode and a price.
Proof points
100%
HMRC-aligned SDLT thresholds, updated the day rates change.
28
Trades in every build-cost estimate, RICS-benchmarked by region.
~30s
Median time from postcode entered to feasibility verdict.
Where the spreadsheet gives up
Where the spreadsheet breaks, row by row
Every hour you spend rebuilding a formula is an hour you didn’t spend sourcing the next deal.
| What you’re doing now | Why it breaks | What PropertyLord AI does instead |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing SDLT | Manual lookup, stale thresholds, surcharges forgotten on second homes. | HMRC-accurate SDLT auto-calculated from price and buyer type. |
| Estimating build cost | Guess a £/sqft or pay £3k for a QS on a deal you haven’t won yet. | 28 trades, RICS-benchmarked, with the regional multiplier applied automatically. |
| Reading the area | No signal beyond a postcode and a hunch. | Postcode-level classification with flood, planning, and tenure risk flags. |
| Turnaround per deal | 45–90 minutes once the formulas are behaving. | 30 seconds from postcode entered to numbers on screen. |
| Keeping it current | One Budget and your sheet is silently wrong for six months. | Rates tracked centrally — your last check and your next check use the same source. |
| Someone to check your logic | Just you and the formula bar at 11pm. | Built by developers, for developers — assumptions are visible and challengeable. |
Task
Estimating build cost
Why it breaks
Guess a £/sqft or pay £3k for a QS on a deal you haven’t won yet.
What PropertyLord AI does
28 trades, RICS-benchmarked, with the regional multiplier applied automatically.
Task
Reading the area
Why it breaks
No signal beyond a postcode and a hunch.
What PropertyLord AI does
Postcode-level classification with flood, planning, and tenure risk flags.
Task
Turnaround per deal
Why it breaks
45–90 minutes once the formulas are behaving.
What PropertyLord AI does
30 seconds from postcode entered to numbers on screen.
Task
Keeping it current
Why it breaks
One Budget and your sheet is silently wrong for six months.
What PropertyLord AI does
Rates tracked centrally — your last check and your next check use the same source.
Task
Someone to check your logic
Why it breaks
Just you and the formula bar at 11pm.
What PropertyLord AI does
Built by developers, for developers — assumptions are visible and challengeable.
See how Quick Check runs the first two columns on a real postcode →
Three reflexes, priced
Three reasons people stay on Excel — and what they actually cost
Objection 01
“It’s free.”
So is Quick Check. The difference is what happens when SDLT rates move — your sheet doesn’t know, ours does.
The day SDLT thresholds move, every self-built spreadsheet needs checking. PropertyLord AI updates centrally; your spreadsheet only updates when you remember to reopen the formula.
Objection 02
“I know how mine works.”
Until you don’t. We’ve seen sheets with SDLT formulas that were wrong for six months — the developer only noticed after completion.
PropertyLord AI uses HMRC’s published thresholds directly. If HMRC changes them, the tool is right the next morning. Your sheet is right whenever you remember.
Objection 03
“It’s good enough.”
Good enough costs deals. A 3% SDLT surcharge missed on a £400,000 purchase is £12,000 — most of a year of PropertyLord AI Pro gone on one mistake.
Direct HMRC calculation, not a marketing figure: 3% × £400,000 = £12,000. Same maths on a £600,000 second home = £18,000.
Honest bit
Where a spreadsheet is still fine
Not every deal needs us. If you’re doing one of the below, your sheet is probably the right tool.
You’re modelling a single bespoke deal with non-standard structure.
JV waterfall, layered mezzanine, promoted interest. PropertyLord AI handles the standard capital stack fast; bespoke waterfalls still want a sheet.
The deal is under offer and you’ve already built the model three times.
If the sheet exists and the numbers are stable, rebuilding it in PropertyLord AI for the sake of it is wasted time.
You’re doing portfolio reporting across 20+ live projects.
That’s a data-warehouse job, not a feasibility job — neither Excel nor PropertyLord AI is really the right surface for it.
For everything else — a new postcode, an unfamiliar build cost, a number you want sanity-checked before you send the offer — that’s what this is for.
One voice, not a carousel
What the switch looks like in practice
“Illustrative Quick Check: a 6-bed HMO screen in Leeds can go from postcode entered to verdict in about 30 seconds, with SDLT (£5,700), build cost (£92,160), and viability visible in one view instead of being rebuilt across tabs.”
Not ready to run a deal? Take the build-cost data with you.
We’ll email you the regional UK build-cost PDF — 28 trades, RICS-benchmarked, segmented by region. One click to unsubscribe.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Five questions before the switch
What developers ask before they switch
- Does PropertyLord AI actually replace my spreadsheet, or is it an extra tool?
- For feasibility — SDLT, build cost, area risk, basic capital stack — yes, it replaces the sheet. For bespoke JV waterfalls and portfolio reporting, it doesn’t. Most developers we talk to keep one sheet for bespoke deals and use PropertyLord AI for everything else.
- How accurate is the SDLT calculation compared to my accountant’s?
- It uses HMRC’s published thresholds directly, including the 3% surcharge on additional dwellings and the non-resident surcharge where it applies. The output matches what your accountant will get — the difference is 30 seconds versus a week.
- Where does the “28 trades, RICS-benchmarked” build-cost figure come from?
- A regional build-cost model assembled from published RICS benchmarks plus trade-level breakdowns. The number you see on a deal is the regional multiplier applied to the 28-trade base. Full methodology lives on the Build Cost tool page.
- Can I import a deal I already have in Excel?
- Not directly — yet. For now the fastest path is pasting the postcode and purchase price into Quick Check; it reproduces the SDLT and build-cost sections in under a minute. Full Excel import is on the roadmap.
- What happens when SDLT rates change?
- The tool updates centrally. You don’t have to remember. Your last check and your next check use the same HMRC source, so year-over-year deal comparisons stay honest.