The cost of selling a house in 2023

Before you embark on your selling journey, we think it’s useful to know exactly what you’re going to be spending. That way you can really know if now’s the right time.

From conveyancing fees to EPCs, stamp duty and removal costs, we’re here to help you understand what it all adds up to, with a detailed explanation of what factors affect the final price tag.

The Strike cost of moving calculator looks at your individual circumstances to come up with a personalised estimates. That way you can decide if now is the right time for you to sell or begin budgeting for your move. And if you are ready to move? We can also help you make some choices that will save you some money along the way.

According to home moving comparison site Reallymoving, the cost of moving house has risen by 21% from 2021-2022 from £11,777 to £14,207. Yikes. This surge is largely due to the spike in house prices, as lots of services charge as a percentage of the house price. Some experts predict that house prices may level out or even drop in the coming few months, so you might see a reduction in these costs. 

Average cost 1-5% of the total mortgage

Mortgage costs

If you have a mortgage on your current property, you may incur some costs when moving house. Firstly, you’ll want to check the terms of the mortgage. There are a couple of options in terms of dealing with your current mortgage deal:

1. You might be able to take your mortgage to your new property.

   This is known as “porting” your mortgage. If you’re on the introductory rate of your mortgage, then it will most likely be “portable.” Once you’ve decided to port the mortgage to your new place, you’ll need to go through affordability and credit checks. If you need to borrow more money for your new property then you can either increase your current mortgage, or get another one on top of the one you’ll be bringing over.

2. Or you could pay off your mortgage, and take out a new one if you need one for your new home. Some mortgages aren’t portable, so you’ll pay your current mortgage off. If you’re paying it off earlier than expected, then you’ll get charged an early repayment fee. This is usually between 1-5% of the total mortgage; so on a mortgage of £295k (the national average at the end of 2022), you would be looking at anywhere between £2,950 (1%) and £14,750 (5%). It can be hefty, but it might be worth it.

Average cost £50-£5,000

Getting your house ready for sale

So mortgage aside, what other costs can come up? Well,  it starts with getting your home ready to sell. 

Deep cleaning the house, fixing what’s broken, or just polishing and sprucing up the space, are worth doing as it should add to the value of the house in the long run. 

You’ll likely want to fix what’s broken — any cabinets falling off their hinges, chipped countertops or even just lightbulbs that need replacing. This may seem counterintuitive as you’re about to leave, but why give prospective buyers an excuse to find superficial flaws that could put them off, when they could easily be fixed? Some costs may be bigger (like replacing a boiler on the blink), but the hope is that it will all pay off in the end. If you’re not sure whether or not a repair is worth doing, talk to your estate agent. 

Estate agent fees

The average estate agent charges between 0.75% – 2.5%+VAT of your final sale price, with the average sitting at around 1.5% according to Home Owners Alliance. Most traditional or high street agents run on a “no sell, no fee” basis — so you don’t need to pay them if they’re unsuccessful at selling the home. Online agents tend to be more affordable than the traditional estate agents, but they more often charge a fixed fee, regardless of whether they sell your home. 

Strike is different because we actually don’t charge any commission. We can sell your house, totally free of charge. Genuinely, truly free. Wondering how we make our money? We charge for additional extras — like viewing services, financial services and removals. These are add-ons though, so you’re not tied to any of them. You only use them if you want to. That saves you a lot of money. In fact, for a home worth £295k (the UK average), we estimate that you’ll be saving £4,425 by using Strike as your estate agent. That’s money that could be going toward your next home.

Average conveyancing cost £1,270 for freehold, £1,420 for leasehold

Conveyancing fees

You may have watched Suits, but you’ll still want to hire a solicitor or licensed conveyancer to handle the legal side of selling your home. We know “conveyancing” sounds like a made up word, designed to put you off selling your house… but it’s really quite straightforward. A conveyancer is another word for a solicitor who specialises in property sales. They organise the legal transfer of the property, and you’ll need them from the moment you accept the offer, all the way until completion (which, on average, takes around 8-12 weeks). 

Firstly, you’ll want to find someone reliable and trustworthy to do your conveyancing - this means they are CLC, SRA, LSS or LSNI regulated. They can be either a conveyancer or a solicitor (who specialises in conveyancing). You can either use the one recommended by your estate agent (they may have in-house solicitors) or you can go elsewhere. At Strike, we like to keep it simple with a conveyancing service that offers a flat rate, with a no-sell-no-fee policy. Feel free to shop around though, and don’t be afraid to ask questions and compare prices. 

If you’re looking to keep costs down at this stage (why wouldn’t you be!) then it’s worth exploring a “no sale, no fee” company, where the commission incentive should give them focused dedication to your job. It’s also really worth finding someone who offers a “fixed fee”, meaning the price is agreed before they start the work, and you’re not going to get lumped with an unexpected bill if the journey isn’t as smooth as you both thought it might be.

Average cost £250-£4,000, plus VAT

Removal costs

Moving costs can vary a lot. As a benchmark, the cost of packing up a 3 bedroom house and moving 50 miles would be around £1,181, but there are a few factors which will affect the price:

• Home accessibility - live on the 40th floor? It’ll cost ya! 

• Location of the property (for example, London moves are more expensive than other areas).

• Are they moving you out and into a new place? Or into a storage unit (which costs £23.94 on average per square foot, per year in the UK). 

• Quantity of things to move (remember: do you really need to take 47 moisturisers with you to your new place? Could be time for a cull!)

• How far away is the new home?

• Are they boxing things up or are you?

If you’re doing the moving yourself rather than using a service, remember things like renting a van, parking, petrol and other costs will still all add up.

Paying to Extend Your Lease

If your property is a leasehold (not a freehold) you’ll want to check how long is left on the lease, and potentially extend it.

Why?

If it is too short it could decrease the appeal of the home to prospective buyers. It’s not cheap, but it will add value to the property. If the lease has less than 80 years left on it, then you’ll be paying more so try to do it before it reaches this point. 

Also, it will be hard to get a mortgage on a place with a short lease. You don’t want to rule out all those potential buyers, so it’s worth doing. 

When?

If the lease has 90 or less years, then you’ll want to explore extending it. Definitely don’t wait until the lease has 80 years or less because:

1. It’ll be more expensive to extend.

2. You’ll increase the value of the property by extending the lease to more than 80 years. Because of what’s called “marriage value”, the landlord is entitled to 50% of any increase in value of the property thanks to the lease extension. We know it sounds confusing, but actually pretty straightforward. Basically if your house is valued at £200k with a 60 year lease, then £250k with a 125 year lease, your landlord has a right to half of the money made (in this case £25k, which is half of the £50k profits made). 

What?

You will be paying:

1. The premium - this is just the amount you need to pay to the landlord.

2. The fees - legal fees etc. to calculate and organise the payment. 

You can use an online calculator to estimate how much it will cost, like this one.  

How?

You can check how long is left on your lease for just £3 on the Land Registry website. 

As well as getting an online estimate, you’ll definitely need to get a leasehold valuation professional to calculate the amount it will cost and then organise the payment to the landlord, which will happen via their solicitors. 

So...what's the number?

So in short, putting your property up for sale can be pretty pricey, with the average sitting around £14,207 by the time all the dust has settled. But we at Strike believe that there shouldn’t be a huge price tag on selling your home. We want the power to be in your hands, so you can decide as much or as little intervention and help as you need. That way you can control how much you spend — it’s your home, after all, so we think it should be your choice.

For a more tailored calculation why not check out the Strike cost of moving calculator to come up with your personalised estimate.