How Much Does It Cost To Sell A House?

The cost of selling a house varies hugely as many factors come in to play; how you advertise your property, which conveyancer you choose, removal costs, and more.

Selling a house can be an overwhelming experience, especially when you are faced with questions that you do not know the answers to, such as what is the average cost of selling a house UK?

In this blog post, we will be looking at the average cost of selling your house, what options you have & what they cost, and the cost of conveyancing as well as an alternative way to sell for free.

This article is quite long, and we understand you may have a specific query about the cost of a certain aspect, or you simply might just want to jump to the end.

Cost of Selling a House – Overview

Determining exactly what fees you pay when selling a house, is a tricky question with a lot of moving parts. If you’ve come to this blog looking for a quick answer, then here is an example.

According to Comparemymove, the average cost to sell a house in 2023 is £6,224 for a property that is priced at £277,00. If we use a property valued at £277,000, below is a breakdown of the overall costs you will pay:

• EPC Estimate: £85

• Estate Agent Fee Estimate (1.4%): £3,268

• Conveyancing Fees Estimate £85

• Removal Company Cost: £1,181

• Total: £6,224

This doesn’t include some of the other costs you may incur such as house repayments exit fees or solicitors fees for selling a house, Capital Gains Tax, and more, but we’ll talk about that later in the article.

Extra Costs:

Your Sale Option Costs

In order to get the word out about your property, you'll first need to advertise it. The way you go about doing this is your choice, and there are pros and cons to whichever route you take.

If you don't have much spare time or don't feel comfortable holding viewings with potential buyers yourself, then you can have an estate agent do it for you.

An estate agent will be well prepped to deal with the viewings and advertising however it will cost you money. The amount that estate agents fee varies from company to company. Some people prefer to save money by using an online estate agent whilst others choose to bypass the open market altogether and instead sell to a genuine cash buyer like The Property Buying Company.

Read our complete guide: 30 questions to ask Estate Agents when selling your house

Basic fees for selling a house overview

There are a few costs of selling a house involved if you choose to sell through the traditional estate agents route. Let's start with the basic ones:

• EPC - the energy performance certificate costs between £60 and £150 plus VAT

• Estate agent fees - these vary between 0.5% to 3% of the sale price, plus VAT

• Conveyancing fees - costs between £550 to £1,700, this includes VAT

• Removal costs - to remove the contents of your home, you could look at paying £250 to £4,000 plus VAT

High street estate agent cost

Here we take a more in depth look at the high street agent option, you'll find that high street agents are often much more expensive than online agents.

However, this can vary dependent on the value of the house you're selling as estate agents charge on a percentage of the agreed sale price, usually between 0.75% - 3%.

This means you don't need to pay anything if your property doesn't sell. For example, if you sold a house at £100,000 and the charge was 1%, you'd pay £1,000 to the estate agent.

The average commission that was charged by estate agents in 2022 high street estate agents was 1.18% +VAT. This means that if you sell a house for £277,000 you will see estate agents’ fees of £3,268.

An estate agent’s fee is worked out based on a percentage of the final sale. Whilst estate agents will usually charge between 1%-5%, the fee is not payable until after the property has sold.

Online estate agent cost

Online estate agents can be cheaper and they usually charge a fixed fee. Sometimes they charge upfront, but not always. The costs vary from £99 to £1,695, so if you sold a property at the UK average of £226,000, it could result in savings of over £6,000 compared to a high street agent.

Conveyancing Costs

Your estate agent will often suggest a solicitor, but these aren't always the best option. Sometimes they will recommend a solicitor they have an agreement with and it could cost you more.

According to the Homeowners Alliance, solicitors can charge £500 to £1,500 on legal fees. However, this doesn't include other charges which could total up to around £623:

• Title deeds: £6

• Property fraud fee: £10

• Transferring ownership: £200 - £300

• Bank or telegraphic transfer: £20 - £30

• Money-laundering checks: £8pp

• Searches: £250

Mortgage Fees

If the property that you are selling has a mortgage, then you will be faced with some extra fees. The two main mortgage fees that you need to be aware of are mortgage exit fees as well as early repayment charges.

Mortgage Exit Fee:

If you have paid off your mortgage, then you will need to pay an exit fee to your mortgage lender in order to close it. This will usually cost around £50-£300 but will vary depending on your lender.

Early Repayment Charge:

You may be subject to an early repayment charge if you are leaving your mortgage before your fixed term ends or if you have paid off your mortgage early. This will usually be around 1%–5% of the loan.

Extra costs to consider

There are also some more costs that could be involved, but you'd have to see if these are applicable to you:

• Preparing your house for sale - price varies

• House repayments exit fee (MEAF) - costing between £50 and £300

• Early house repayments repayment charge - usually 1% to 5% loan amount

• Incentives

• Capital Gains Tax (CGT)

• Home report (if you live in Scotland) - typically costs between £100 and £1,000 plus VAT

Capital Gains Tax

Capital Gains Tax is applicable if you make a profit on a property sale that is not your place of residency, such as a buy-to-let property.

Basic rate taxpayers will be expected to pay 18% Capital Gains whereas higher band taxpayers will be expected to pay 28%.

You will have to pay Capital Gains Tax on a property if it is:

• Land

• Buy-To-Let

• Holiday property

• Inherited proper

• Business premises

How To Calculate Sale Profit

What you’ll probably want to know by the end of this is exactly how much profit you’re going to get out of the sale, after all, that’s what it’s about!

In order to work this out, you need to determine your total cost of selling, remaining house repayments balance and the sale price.

Let’s take the example used at the start, the property has sold for £200,000.

Your fees are £3,667.50.

And for simplicity, let’s say you have a remaining house repayments balance of £140,000.

The equation is £200,000 – (£3,667.50 + £140,000) = which leaves you with a total profit of £56,332.50.

Do You Have Any Extra Tips?

Assess your options. Several people jump into the open market with a traditional estate agent because it’s the normal thing to do.

There are several options when it comes to selling your house, you can use an online estate agent and save a bit of money, go to auction, reach out to property investors, or choose a sell house fast option such as ourselves. It all depends on your personal circumstances and what sale option may best suit your needs.

If you’ve determined the open market is for you, picking the right estate agent is vital, but you also want to pick one that doesn’t eat significantly into your profit.

Depending on the value of your property, it might be worth considering an agent with a fixed fee, if you’re interested, we took a deep dive into estate agent commissions.

Another significant factor to the cost of a sale is time, and it’s often overlooked. The longer your house takes to sell, the more bills will rack up over that duration, which is just adding to your cost of selling.

You want to ensure that your property is priced properly for the market, so ensure that you do all the research, find comparable and see what they are selling for in the area before jumping on the open market and trusting your estate agent’s valuation.

Can You Reduce The Cost Of Selling Your Home?

There are certain things that you might be able to do in order to reduce the overall cost of selling your home. Here are just a few of the things that you should consider:

Hiring a good estate agent

If you choose to go down the open market route, choosing the right estate agent initially is vital to saving costs. Don’t just look at the estate agents fees, try and research about their reputation and other people’s experience in dealing with them. You also want to ensure that you aren’t tied into their contract, so you can switch estate agents should they not perform well.

Don’t overdo the improvements

When you’re selling your home, there’s a big temptation to overhaul it, fix all the issues and turn it into a show home.

We’re not saying don’t give the home a new lick of paint or Polyfilla that crack in the wall, but you might not benefit financially from doing major improvements such as fitting a new bathroom or kitchen, as often the amount you put into those larger pieces of work likely won’t be reflected in the sale price.

Time your sale well

Timing is a big thing, the housing market is constantly changing and there are some months that are better at selling than others, for example the housing market slows down near Christmas time for obvious reasons.

We’ve written an article on when the best time to sell your home might be.

Assess your selling options

We touched on this earlier, and it’s assessing which the best way to sell your property is.

The open market can take time, and if you need a quicker sale you might need to seek an alternative, such as The Property Buying Company.

That being said, there are also other alternative options you might want to consider like auctions.

Alternative Sales Route (Free)

At The Property Buying Company, we can buy your home fast, with no agency, legal, or EPC fees. We can even clear any unwanted items from your home for free. We'll buy your house in as little as 7 days, being cash buyers the whole process is quick and simple, we can handle everything for you and take the hassle out of the sale completely.

We only require one quick viewing to make sure that our cash offer is accurate and as we are a genuine cash buyer, once you have accepted our offer, that is the amount that you get in your bank in FULL.

We are also a member of The National Association of Property Buyers and The Property Ombudsman, as well as being rated excellent on Trustpilot, with over 1000 reviews, allowing you to feel safe in our hands.

Give us a call or fill in our online form to receive a no-obligation cash offer which you could have in full in your bank, without any legal or estate agent fees to pay…