How to buy gilts in the UK

There are three ways to buy gilts in the UK: through a stockbroker or investment platform, through a bank’s share-dealing service, or through the Debt Management Office’s Purchase and Sale Service, which Computershare runs on its behalf (DMO). All three deal in the secondary market, where existing gilts change hands. Before you deal, check three numbers: the clean price, the accrued interest that will be added to it, and the yield to maturity. If you are new to bonds, start with bonds explained.

What you are buying

A gilt is a sterling liability of the UK government, issued by HM Treasury and listed on the London Stock Exchange (DMO). A conventional gilt pays a fixed coupon in two equal payments six months apart and repays its face value on the maturity date. Prices are quoted per £100 of face value, also called nominal. So £10,000 nominal bought at £95 costs about £9,500 before accrued interest and charges, and repays £10,000 at maturity.

Index-linked gilts work the same way except that the coupons and the principal are adjusted in line with the Retail Prices Index, with a lag, so they can also fall if the index falls (DMO). We cover them in inflation and index-linked gilts.

How to buy gilts through a platform or stockbroker

On an execution-only platform or with a stockbroker, buying a gilt works much like buying a share. Gilts can sit in a general investment account, a self-invested pension or a stocks and shares ISA: GOV.UK lists government bonds among the investments a stocks and shares ISA can hold (GOV.UK). The steps are broadly the same everywhere.

1. Choose the account. Outside a wrapper, coupons are taxable and gains are not; inside an ISA or pension, neither is taxed.
2. Find the gilt by its name, which gives the coupon and the maturity year, or by its ISIN, the code that identifies the security.
3. Read the quote: the clean price, the accrued interest, the yield to maturity and the gap between the buying and selling prices.
4. Choose an order type. A limit order sets the most you will pay; a market order takes the price available at the time.
5. Enter the nominal or cash amount, confirm, and keep the contract note, which records the price, the accrued interest and the charges.

Platforms charge in different ways: a commission on each deal, an annual platform or custody fee, or both. The price you pay also includes the spread between buying and selling prices, which can be wider on less traded gilts. Compare the total cost on the size of deal you plan, not the headline commission.

The DMO Purchase and Sale Service

As at 9 October 2026 the DMO still offers a dealing service for private investors, operated by Computershare Investor Services, which also keeps the register of gilt holdings (DMO). To buy through it you must join the DMO’s Approved Group of Investors. Joining costs nothing, but membership is open only to UK residents who satisfy the DMO’s checks on identity and source of funds (DMO).

The process runs on forms rather than a screen. You send a completed dealing form with payment; if it arrives complete by 10am on a dealing day, the purchase is made that day at the market price available at the time of execution. You cannot set a limit price because the service is execution only, and instructions cannot be cancelled once posted. Settlement is normally three business days after the form is received, and a certificate follows (DMO).

Commission is charged on the total settlement amount, including accrued or rebate interest (DMO). On a £20,000 purchase that comes to £35 plus 0.375% of £15,000, or £91.25.

Auction or secondary market?

New gilts reach the market mainly through DMO auctions, with syndicated offerings and tenders alongside. For 2026 to 2027, under its financing remit as revised on 23 April 2026, the DMO plans to sell £174.4bn of gilts in 53 auctions, 70.8% of total gilt sales, and about £42.0bn by syndication (DMO). These are wholesale operations: the successful bidders are primary dealers, known as Gilt-edged Market Makers, and other investors (HM Treasury).

The DMO’s pages for private investors describe buying in the secondary market, through a stockbroker, a bank or the Purchase and Sale Service (DMO). For a private buyer the difference matters less than it sounds: a gilt bought in the weeks after an auction is the same security, at whatever the market price then is.

Clean price, dirty price and accrued interest

Gilt prices are quoted clean, without the interest that has built up since the last coupon. Because the buyer will receive the whole of the next coupon, the buyer pays the seller the interest accrued so far, which goes up by the same amount each day (HMRC, HS343). The clean price plus accrued interest is the dirty price, the sum that actually changes hands before costs.

A hypothetical example: you buy £10,000 nominal of a 4% gilt at a clean price of £98.50, 60 days into a 182-day coupon period. The half-yearly coupon is £200, so the accrued interest is about £200 × 60 ÷ 182, or £65.93. You pay £9,850 plus £65.93, plus dealing costs. Seven business days before each coupon date a gilt goes ex-dividend: a buyer settling in that window does not get the next payment, and the adjustment runs the other way, as rebate interest taken off the price (DMO).

Accrued interest also has a tax angle outside a wrapper. Under the Accrued Income Scheme a seller is taxed on accrued interest received and a buyer can set accrued interest paid against the next coupon (HMRC). Individuals are outside the scheme unless the nominal value of the securities they hold exceeds £5,000 on any day in the tax year or the year before (Income Tax Act 2007, section 639).

Yield to maturity, and what it leaves out

The yield to maturity, also called the redemption yield, “gives an indication of the actual return on capital” for a buyer who holds to the end (DMO). It combines the coupons with the gain or loss between the price paid and £100 at maturity. Price and yield move in opposite directions: when prices rise, yields fall. The running yield, the coupon divided by the price, ignores that gain or loss and can mislead on gilts priced far from £100.

Quoted yields are before tax. Outside a wrapper, coupons are taxed as savings income while gains are free of capital gains tax (GOV.UK), so two gilts with the same gross yield can pay very different amounts after tax. Our explainer on low-coupon gilts and capital gains tax works through the arithmetic, and gilts or a savings account sets the result against a fixed-rate deposit.

Holding to maturity

Hold a conventional gilt to its maturity date and you receive the coupons along the way and £100 for each £100 nominal at the end, whatever prices did in between. The DMO says the British government “has never failed to make interest payments or principal payments on gilts as they fall due” (DMO). Sell earlier and you get the market price on the day, which may be more or less than you paid. Investors saving for a known bill can match maturity dates to the dates the money is needed.

Costs and tax at a glance

Before you buy

1. Decide the wrapper first, because it changes which gilt works best after tax.
2. Note the maturity date and whether you can wait for it.
3. Read the clean price, the accrued interest and the yield to maturity, and check the spread.
4. Use a limit order where the platform offers one.
5. Work out the total cost as a percentage of the amount invested.
6. Keep every contract note for your tax records.