Cost when selling a house
Selling a house in the UK can be expensive and there can be a lot of costs involved when selling a house from estate agent and removal costs to legal fees and all sorts of miscellaneous costs that might catch you off guard like EPC certificates, capital gains tax or early repayment fees. Read our guide to find out to find some of the best tips, guides & advice on selling a property and the associated costs. With an estimated average moving total cost of £8,885 every penny saved can help.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do estate agents charge?
Estate agent fees vary from location to location but you would be looking at around 1-3% of the property value plus VAT. There are also a lot of ‘no sale, no fee’ services so it can pay to shop around to get the best deal. If you have an expensive property to can also normally negotiate a smaller fee.
Who pays Stamp Duty when selling a house?
Whilst there was a stamp duty holiday normally in the UK the buyer will pay the stamp duty land tax also known as SDLT. You can find out how much you might need to pay via the government stamp duty calculator located here – https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/calculate-stamp-duty-land-tax/
Do online estate agents like PurpleBricks get paid on success?
Unfortunately not, unlike a high street estate agent who you only pay on a sale. a company like Purple bricks you pay if you sell or not, this is to compensate for their lower cost to list etc.
What is the cost of moving house?
According to Which? its £10,400 to move (or £1,613 for first-time buyers) Barclays has an estimate of £8,885 to move house. These costs may fluctuate area to area and depending on circumstances e.g. currently (at the time of writing) Brexit affects the cost of removals due to a shortage of drivers.
How much is the cost of Selling a House UK
The cost of selling a house can vary greatly depending on several factors. How you advertise your property, the conveyancing firm you choose, removal costs and other misc. When someone wants to know that your property is for sale you will require first to advertise. Most people will use high street estate agents but It would likely be cheaper to use an online estate agent or you can bypass the open market all together sell to a cash-based property buyer. On top of estate agents, you will need to pay fees for any financial services like solicitors etc. You will want to move your stuff which means you’ll be paying for a removals company which can add to the cost and finally this does not include all other costs you may incur including mortgage exit fees Capital Gains Tax and more.
We’ve put together an easy to read table for you to help –
Basic Costs When Selling A House
| Item: | Cost: |
| EPC | £35-£150+VAT |
| Estate agent fees | 0.5%-3%+VAT (of the sale price) |
| Conveyancing fees | £550-£1000 (inc.VAT) |
| Removal costs | £250-£4,000+VAT |
Other potential extra Costs
| Item: | Cost: |
| Preparing a house for sale | Dependent on work needed |
| Mortgage exit fee (MEAF) | Normally between £75 – £300 |
| Early mortgage repayment charge | between 1-5% of the loan |
| Capital Gains Tax (CGT) | Variable, see below section |
| Home Report (Scotland) | between £250 – £750 |
Energy performance certificates (EPC)
An (energy performance certificate) EPC lasts for 10 years and the costs vary from between £60 and £120 so you might be able to save by shopping around. As the certificate lasts for 10 years so its worth checking to see if you still have a valid one still if the property is new or the owners moved recently. The EPC is attached to the property and not the person, you can check here -https://find-energy-certificate.digital.communities.gov.uk/
Normally your estate agent will arrange the EPC on your behalf if you are using one. It is required to get an EPC within a week of putting the property on market so make sure you’ve got one!
- a mandatory item for a home sale
- It shows how energy efficient your home is in easy to understand terms like A (good) B & C etc.
- Can only be given out by accredited professionals
- Valid for 10 years
- Stored digitally here -https://find-energy-certificate.digital.communities.gov.uk/
- An estate agent can arrange and prices vary.
Estate agent selling fees
Nearly all residential house sales will go via a traditional estate agency (around 96%) with most sole agents charging around 1.5% (with a variable on location etc.) and all fee’s are normally including VAT. Nearly all services are based around a no sale, no fee. You can use multiple estate agents but you normally end up paying more and it also adds to the stress of organising everything, we recommend using just one.
- Common use
- Working on no, sale no fee basis
- Cost around 1.5% of property value
Other types of estate agents – Hybrid & Online
Less common than a traditional estate agent they tend to work differently too. Whilst they can be cheaper than traditional high street agents working on fixed fees you will normally have to pay if you sell your property or not. This fee might not be an upfront fee but you’re still expected to pay to you should be aware. If your property doesn’t sell you could be stuck with the fee as seen here
Fees vary from £500 – £5000
- Pay if you sell or not
- no guarantee of selling
- less common to be used.
Auction
- Fees for listing
- commission
Quick property buyers
You can sell your property to a quick house seller however, you wouldn’t get the full market value so whilst there is a saving in fees and costs it can be outweighed by the reduction of the total received. The main benefit is the speed at which you can receive funds from the property.
- Not full market value
- Fast to get funds
- not suitable for everyone.
Conveyancing/solicitor fees
A licensed conveyancer is a special kind of solicitor so really they’re one and the same albeit one who specialized. As with anything on our guide prices vary. An average conveyancing cost is from £300 – £1500. A bit like estate agents the work can vary from firm & person. Generally, it can be a bit cheaper if you are selling than buying with a solicitor and fees can be either on a fixed fee service or based on a percentage of the house price. Variables also come in the form of if the property is freehold, leasehold and the status of a mortgage
A further breakdown with thanks to the homeowners alliance goes to show the variation on the cost to sell.
- Variable quality and cost
- Can affect how your property is either bought or sold
| Fee | Amount | Buying | Selling |
| Anti-money laundering checks | £6 – £20 | X | X |
| Bankruptcy search | £4 | X | – |
| Title deeds copy | £6 | – | X |
| Local authority searches | £250-450 | X | – |
| Property fraud check | £10 | X | X |
| Transferring of ownership | £200 – £300 | – | X |
| Bank transfer fees | £20 – £30 | X | – |
| Stamp Duty Land Tax | 0-12% | X | – |
| Help to Buy supplement | £200 – £300 | X | – |
| Gifted deposit | £50 – £100 | X | – |
| Lifetime/Help to Buy ISA | £60 | X | – |
| Average conveyancing fees | Between £850 and £1,500 | < | < |
- Variable quality and cost
- Can affect how your property is either bought or sold
Removal costs
Paperwork, home viewing and legalities can be stressful but no more than packing your life up ready to move. There are a variety of options for removals and prices to match. If you have available items and living on the top floor of a multiple story building with a lift you may not want to do it yourself. Prices are affected by accessibility, the value of the items (for insurance mostly) how far you are moving and who is boxing up your items and if they need storage between moves. You can easily DIY a move but packing all your items well and the time to do it as well as loading and unloading can be eased by getting someone else to do it, on the plus side it also means when you get to your destination you will know where to get e.g. the items for the kitchen compared to trying to dig through a mountain of boxes only to find its the bottom one!
Price will vary on:
- Location
- Accessability
- distance
- value of items
- Storage requirements
DIY moving
If you want to save money and have a few good friends and a van to move you will want to ensure you’ve got insurance, will household insurance cover you? If not £20-£50 will cover you normally. The cost of fuel enough packaging materials and boxes and finally enough time to get it all done. Removal firms have a lot of people to help if there is only a couple of you expect it to take longer as well as take more out of you!
Preparation for a home sale
Amat Victoria Curam
Victory loves preparation, whilst there could be another length of time or cost to this stage as in reality there could be with any step in our guide the more you prepare the more you will find everything a bit easier down the line. Things you might want to ask yourself is: Do I need to paint or renovate? a little presentation goes a long way and this could be anything from just a tidy up to renovating the kitchen to look like new it can help sell your property and make it the best it can be. A clean and tidy home can help is sell a lot faster than a messy one. The three things we think give the biggest bang for buck are:
-
Clean
You can either get a specialist in to do a deep clean and e.g. wash your carpets or do it yourself. a clean house makes a huge difference.
-
Repair
A bit of oil on that squeaky door or fixing that thing you’ve been putting off for the last 12 months. Some things you may need to get help with like plumbing or electrical etc but making the house a good working house will help you sell it to any potential buyers.
-
Redecorate
Everyone has different taste, most people can agree a plain white wall will let them imagine theirs on your house and is a quick and easy way to sell. A fresh coat of paint on doors and finishing really can help especially if you’ve not done any redecoration in the past 5 years, it will help modernize the house.
Mortgage charges
A Mortgage is just (basically) loans and there are two types of mortgage fees you are likely to come across in the wild –
- Mortgage exit fee
- Early repayment charge
Both sound unpleasant but can be easy to understand.
Mortgage exit fee –
generally, you’ll take a mortgage for a certain number of years if you want to move you’ll most likely face the fee which can be between £50 – £500 (sometimes it’s part of the mortages upfront fees) now you might be lucky and not have this charge not all lenders will and it covers admin fees associated with the mortgage. You can check your paperwork if the charge seems to high and it should be listed there. Money-saving experts has some great advice about it on their website
Early repayment charge
Mortgages make money! now if you were to pay your mortgage off early (lucky you!) the bank wouldn’t make as much money via the interest and this makes them sad. To stop this you would have to essentially pay the balance of profit they would’ve made on your mortgage. Its a bit crazy but that’s just how it is. The outstanding is normally calculated by the remaining balance and how long is left of the mortgage. it can be between 1% and 5%. It should be in the associated paperwork if you are moving and if it seems unfair you can talk to the financial ombudsman and raise a complaint.
Not selling
Property not selling, house market got you down? Well, you can try an incentive to help if you are trying to sell to buy to let property for example you could offer furniture or stamp duty to be paid. If you felt your estate agents were not pulling their weight you can try a sliding scale on the fee e.g. if the property sells for X you will I’ve them a larger percentage of the final sale price etc. More recently though most people have not had an issue selling their home but its good to have options.
Taxes
In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. – Benjamin Franklin
You can’t escape taxes and when buying or selling a property there are a few! Mostly Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and (SDLT) stamp duty land tax. If you only have one home you do not need to worry about Capital gains tax due to Private Residence Relief. If however, you do need to pay CGT due to having a second home or a condition that meets the criteria it’s best to talk to a financial expert e.g. accountant to help you calculate the total amount of profit the property has made. You should also be aware you don’t need to pay the first £12,300 ‘profit’ so it can be tricky which is why we recommend talking to an accountant. You can read a bit more about it here.
Stamp duty (excluding the stamp duty holiday) is the amount you pay on buying a property and you can use a handed calculator to help figure out how much. There are a few exceptions to paying but for the most part, you will need to pay stamp duty when buying a house. Selling a house does not require you to pay this tax.
Home Report (Scotland only)
If you live (or have a property) in Scotland you might need a Home Report which was introduced in 2008 to help with clarifications and responsibilities. Generally, the costs can vary but the report works a little like our surveys and gives a guide to the property and its condition. This only applies if you are dealing with Scottish properties.
What else?
don’t underestimate the amount of stress and all the costs of moving house it is one of the topmost stressful things you will do. Make sure you know what to expect, how much it might cost so you can budget for it and you’ll get through it with no hitches. Don’t be scared to shop around, you should (we hope) know what to look out for and you can shop around for the best deal, don’t forget to glance at reviews as just because something is the cheapest that doesn’t make it the best!
We wish you the best of luck with your endeavours and we would be more than happy to help buy your house if were in need of our service as we are a top-rated UK cash buyer and after all.. We buy any house!