How your rate bill is worked out
Domestic rates are charged on homes in Northern Ireland and billed by Land & Property Services (LPS) for the rating year from 1 April to 31 March. The sum is simple: your home's rateable capital value multiplied by the domestic rate for your council area. That rate has two parts, the regional rate set for the whole of Northern Ireland and the district rate set by your council.
The capital value is what LPS says your home would have sold for on 1 January 2005, assuming an average state of repair and standard fittings such as a standard kitchen and bathroom. Homes built since then are valued by comparison with similar homes that existed on that date. Size, type (detached, semi-detached, terrace or apartment), location and any garage or outbuildings all count. The LPS property valuation search shows the value of any home, along with LPS's estimate of its full annual bill.
The Finance Minister's example home for 2026/27 had an average capital value of £123,000, and that's the calculator's starting figure. In Belfast, where the total domestic rate is 0.010051, the bill is £123,000 × 0.010051 = £1,236.27 for the year: £683.76 of regional rate and £552.51 of district rate.
The regional rate for 2026/27 is 0.5559p in the pound, fixed by the Rates (Regional Rates) Order (Northern Ireland) 2026. The Executive agreed a 5.0% rise for homes, the same uplift as in 2025/26, and the Minister put the effect on the average home at 63p a week more on the regional part of the bill. The regional rate helps pay for services such as education, health care, roads and law and order, and the district rate for council services such as waste management, leisure centres, environmental health and building control.
2026/27 domestic rates for all 11 councils
Each council sets its own district rate, so the total varies across Northern Ireland. The table gives the Department of Finance's domestic poundages for 2026/27, in pounds for each £1 of capital value, with our calculation of the bill on the £123,000 average home and the change in the total rate since 2025/26.
Swipe the table sideways to see all five columns.
The regional rate is 0.005559 in every council area (0.005294 in 2025/26). Poundages from the Department of Finance; bills and changes are our calculations.
Derry City and Strabane has the highest total rate and Lisburn and Castlereagh the lowest, so the same £123,000 home costs £1,502.32 a year in Derry City and Strabane and £1,171.58 in Lisburn and Castlereagh. Totals rose by between 3.6% in Fermanagh and Omagh and 4.8% in Ards and North Down and in Belfast.
The £400,000 cap on capital values
Rates are charged on no more than £400,000 of capital value. For a home valued above that, LPS disregards the extra value, so a Belfast home valued at £470,000 pays the same as one at £400,000: £400,000 × 0.010051 = £4,020.40. LPS's own estimates show £4,020 for Belfast homes valued at £470,000 and at £480,000. The cap has been £400,000 since 1 April 2009, when it came down from £500,000.
In 2025 the Department of Finance consulted on raising the cap to £485,000 and cutting the early payment discount from 4% to 2%. For 2026/27 bills, the cap is still £400,000 and the discount is still 4%.
Allowances that cut the bill
Lone Pensioner Allowance takes 20% off if you're 70 or over and live alone, and it isn't means tested. Some people living with you don't count: a carer who isn't your spouse or partner, someone you care for who isn't your spouse or partner, anyone under 18, or someone with a severe mental impairment such as dementia, even if they're your partner. Homeowners apply to LPS and tenants to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, and you keep paying your bill until LPS makes a decision.
Disabled Persons Allowance takes 25% off when the home has been adapted for a disabled person who lives there, and the adaptation is essential or of major importance to their needs. It can be a room other than a kitchen, bathroom or toilet used wholly for their treatment or therapy, an extra kitchen, an extra bathroom or toilet, or enough floor space to use a wheelchair inside. Having a disability doesn't qualify on its own, and rearranging rooms, such as moving a bedroom downstairs, would likely not qualify. Income and savings don't affect it.
You can get both. Under the Rates (Northern Ireland) Order 1977, Lone Pensioner Allowance is worked out on the rates left after Disabled Persons Allowance, so together they take 40% off: 25% first, then 20% of the rest. On the £1,236.27 Belfast example that leaves £741.76. The calculator works in that order and then takes any early payment discount off the result.
On a low income? The calculator leaves out the means-tested help. If you get Universal Credit, you may be entitled to Rate Rebate. If you, or you and your partner, have reached State Pension age, you can apply to the Housing Executive for Housing Benefit and rate relief; homeowners must not have capital over £50,000. LPS also gives 20% off for a farmhouse connected with farmland and lived in by someone whose main job is farming it, and 50% off for a home lived in by a full-time minister or member of the clergy. You apply for both through a valuation review.
Paying the bill
LPS sends domestic rate bills at the beginning of April. You can pay the whole amount at once or spread it over up to ten monthly payments. If LPS receives the whole bill on or before the discount date, you get 4% off: for the bills sent out from 1 April 2026, the discount date was 8 May 2026. On the £1,236.27 Belfast example, that's £49.45. The law gives the discount for paying the net amount due in a single sum by the date LPS sets, so the calculator takes the 4% off the bill after any allowances.
In a rented home, who pays depends on the value. The landlord is responsible where the capital value is £150,000 or less, or the home is a house in multiple occupation. Above £150,000 the tenant pays, unless the landlord has agreed to pay. Housing Executive tenants are charged rates along with their rent, and LPS's online estimate doesn't cover homes owned by the Housing Executive or housing associations. Empty homes are charged the same as occupied ones unless an exclusion applies, and an empty home valued under £20,000 is excluded automatically.
If you think your valuation is wrong
You can apply to LPS for a valuation review, by post, email or online, if you believe the capital value is wrong or something has changed that might affect it. Keep paying your rates while LPS deals with it. When LPS values a home for the first time or after a review, it sends a certificate of valuation, and you can appeal to the Commissioner of Valuation within 28 days and then to the Northern Ireland Valuation Tribunal.
Related tools
Buying a home? Stamp Duty Land Tax applies in Northern Ireland as it does in England, so our stamp duty calculator covers a purchase here. For a home in England, Scotland or Wales, use the council tax calculator instead. The mortgage calculator shows the monthly repayments, and if your job here is ending, the Northern Ireland redundancy pay calculator uses the Northern Ireland limits.
