Estate agent
The fee is usually a percentage of the price, paid on completion. Conveyancing, EPC and removals still apply.
The cost of selling a house or flat
Each cost is set by a different party, so each gets its own line. Put in your own quotes and the calculator does the arithmetic.
On this page
The short answer
In England and Wales, the cost of selling a house is mainly the agent's fee, conveyancing and disbursements, an Energy Performance Certificate and any early repayment charge on the mortgage. Published averages put agent fees at 1.3 to 1.42 per cent including VAT21 and sale conveyancing at £929 to £1,317 including VAT, depending on the survey.34
None of these figures is a price list. Agents, conveyancers and lenders set their own charges, so the numbers for your sale are the ones on your own quotes.
How much does it cost to sell a house?
Most sellers pay for the agent, the conveyancer, an EPC and removals. A leasehold flat adds a management pack. A mortgage still inside a fixed or discounted deal can add an early repayment charge, the lender's fee for paying the loan off before the deal ends. That charge can be the largest single cost of all. Capital Gains Tax applies only where the property was not your main home throughout.
Stamp duty is a tax on buying, so it is not a cost of the sale. You pay it, if at all, on the home you move to. In England that is Stamp Duty Land Tax,22 and in Wales Land Transaction Tax.23 Scotland has its own, Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.22
Hidden fees when selling a house are usually the ones a quote does not lead with. Four are worth asking about before you sign.
| Cost | Who sets it | Published figure | When it applies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Estate agent fee | The agent, in your contract | 1.3 to 1.42 per cent average including VAT, two sources, neither states its method21 | Sales through an agent |
| Conveyancing fee | Your solicitor or conveyancer | £929 to £1,317 including VAT, surveys differ34 | Every sale |
| Title copies | HM Land Registry, by statute | £7 each online, £11 by post5 | Registered land |
| EPC | The assessor | £60 to £120 including VAT, one comparison site's range8 | Unless you hold a valid one |
| Management pack | Freeholder or managing agent | £300 to £8003 | Leasehold |
| Early repayment charge | Your lender, in your offer | No typical figure. Read your own offer11 | Repaying during a deal period |
| Removals | The removal firm | £867 for three bedrooms, November 202514 | If you hire a firm |
| Capital Gains Tax | HMRC | 18 or 24 per cent of a taxable gain18 | Not your main home throughout |
What a £250,000 sale costs, on the published figures
- Estate agent fee1.3 to 1.42 per cent £3,250 to £3,550 21
- Conveyancingincluding VAT £929 to £1,317 34
- Removalsthree bedrooms £867 14
- EPCif you need a new one £60 to £120 8
- Management packleasehold only £300 to £800 3
The House Desk's total of the figures published by 14 September 2026, freehold: £5,106 to £5,854, before any early repayment charge or tax.
The estate agent's fee
The agent's fee is usually the largest cost of a sale through an agent. Both published averages include VAT. HomeOwners Alliance also splits its figure by contract. Sole agency means one agent markets the property. Multi-agency means several do, and only the one that sells is paid.
Published agent fees, including VAT
- 1.3% Around what sellers paid in 2025, Rightmove2
- 1.42% HomeOwners Alliance’s 2026 average1
- 1.2 to 1.8% Sole agency, HomeOwners Alliance1
- 3 to 3.6% Multi-agency, HomeOwners Alliance1
Neither page says how many sales its average is drawn from or how it was measured. Rightmove is a property portal, and HomeOwners Alliance runs agent and conveyancer introduction services. In any quote, check whether the percentage already includes VAT, whether there is a minimum fee, and what pulling out would cost. Our guide to estate agent fees covers fee structures, tie-in periods and withdrawal charges.
Selling at auction or to a house-buying company changes this line entirely. Auction houses charge sellers their own set of fees, covered in seller fees at auction, and the three ways to sell set out what each route charges and what it gives back in speed or certainty.
Conveyancing fees and disbursements
Conveyancing for a sale averages £929 to £1,317 including VAT on the two published surveys, which measure different things.34 A solicitor or conveyancer handles the legal transfer on every sale, whichever route you take, and there is no official fee scale.
Two published averages for a sale's conveyancing
HomeOwners Alliance, from Reallymoving data Property Solvers
Drawn from4 HomeOwners Alliance, from Reallymoving data: About 34,000 quote forms, second quarter of 2026 Property Solvers: Online quotes from 100 firms, updated 17 February 2026, for properties under £300,000 with a mortgage to pay off
Sale figure3 HomeOwners Alliance, from Reallymoving data: £929 Property Solvers: £1,316.52 freehold, £1,628.58 leasehold
Includes HomeOwners Alliance, from Reallymoving data: VAT and disbursements Property Solvers: VAT, but not disbursements
Publisher’s interest HomeOwners Alliance, from Reallymoving data: Both earn from introducing conveyancers Property Solvers: A house-buying company
Neither figure is a fee you will be quoted. Leasehold sales cost more in both datasets because there is more to check. What goes into a seller's legal bill, the prices every firm must publish and when you pay are all in our guide to solicitor fees for selling a house.
Disbursements are payments your conveyancer makes to others and passes on at cost. For a seller they are small next to the fee. HM Land Registry charges £7 for each official copy of the register or title plan through its portal and £11 by post, with no VAT.5 HomeOwners Alliance lists identity and anti-money laundering checks at £6 to £20.3
Paying off your mortgage from the sale money is part of the job too. On completion your conveyancer receives the buyer's funds, repays the lender and fees, and sends you the balance.21 When the money reaches you after completion depends on that order.
Do you need an Energy Performance Certificate to sell?
Yes. You must have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) before you market a house or flat for sale in England and Wales, and you can be fined for not having one.6 A certificate is valid for 10 years, so one issued when you bought may still cover you.6 If you need a new one, the government's service lists accredited assessors in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The service says the price varies by assessor and property size.7
There is no official fee. Reallymoving, a quote comparison site, gives a typical range of £60 to £120 including VAT, without saying how the range was measured.8
Extra costs for a leasehold flat
Selling a leasehold flat, or a leasehold house, usually means buying a management information pack from the freeholder or managing agent. The pack lets the buyer's conveyancer see service charges, ground rent, insurance and planned works. HomeOwners Alliance puts these packs at £300 to £800, with some managing companies also charging up to £300 for work on the notice of assignment.3
No law caps these fees yet. The 2024 power to cap them is not in force.
Capping leasehold sales information fees, so far
- 2024 The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 20249 Section 67 allows regulations to limit what can be charged for sales information and to set time limits for providing it.
- June 2026 The government’s roadmap10 Places a consultation on leasehold sales information legislation in its 2027 to 2028 stage.
- 14 September 2026 Section 67 still not in force9 As listed on legislation.gov.uk when we checked.
Do you pay an early repayment charge when you sell?
Usually only if you pay off the mortgage while a fixed, discounted or similar deal is still running. The lender must state the maximum early repayment charge in your illustration and mortgage offer. The Financial Conduct Authority's rules say the charge must be a reasonable pre-estimate of the lender's costs, and one that can be expressed as a cash value.11
Will paying off the mortgage cost you a charge?
- Is a fixed, discounted or similar deal still running?
- Yes Can you move the mortgage to your next home?
- Yes Porting can reduce or remove the charge Nationwide, for example, refunds a charge paid on moving if you port within 180 days. Other lenders set their own terms.12
- No Use the figure in your own offer Budget for the maximum charge it states, not an average.11
- No Usually no early repayment charge Check your lender’s tariff for an exit fee instead.
Moving the mortgage to your next home is what lenders call porting. Nationwide also says no charge applies if your sale and purchase complete on the same day.12 Other lenders set their own terms, so check yours. The date your deal ends can also decide when to put the house on the market.
Before you agree a completion date, ask your lender two things: whether the mortgage can move with you to your next home, and whether completing your sale and purchase on the same day changes the early repayment charge. With some lenders it does, and that one date can decide what may be the largest cost of your sale.
Haroon Ali Author, The House Desk. Over 11 years in property and renovation A mortgage exit fee is a separate administration charge for closing the account. It varies by lender, and some no longer charge one. Nationwide stopped on 3 March 2025.13 Your lender's tariff of charges or your offer will say.
Removals
Removals averaged £432 for a one-bedroom home to £1,590 for five bedrooms in November 2025, on HomeOwners Alliance's figures, and a longer move costs more.14
Average removal costs by home size, November 2025
- One bedroom £432 14
- Two bedrooms £603 14
- Three bedrooms £867 14
- Four bedrooms £1,196 14
- Five bedrooms £1,590 14
A three-bedroom move of more than 100 miles averaged about £1,500. Packing services, access problems and moving on a Friday or Monday push the price up.14
Do you pay Capital Gains Tax when you sell your house?
Most people pay no Capital Gains Tax when they sell their home. Private Residence Relief removes the gain when all of these apply:15
- it was your only main home for the whole time you owned it
- you did not let part of it or use part only for business
- the grounds are under 5,000 square metres
- you did not buy it just to make a gain
Miss one of those conditions and relief can still cover part of the gain. The last 9 months of ownership always qualify if the property was your main home at some point.16 That extends to 36 months for a disabled person or someone moving into care who has no other home that qualifies.17
Where there is a gain to tax, the costs of the sale reduce it. HMRC lets you deduct what you spent buying, selling or improving the property, including estate agents' and solicitors' fees, but not decorating or other normal maintenance.24
If there is tax to pay, 2026 to 2027
Scotland and special cases
In Scotland a seller must provide a Home Report within nine days of a buyer asking for it. It combines a single survey and valuation with a property questionnaire and an energy report.20 That is an extra upfront cost that sellers in England and Wales do not have, and it replaces the separate EPC. New homes and seasonal holiday homes are among the exemptions, though they still need an EPC.20 In Scotland the EPC must also be displayed in the property.6
Executors selling an inherited property and landlords selling a house with tenants face costs of their own, and each has its own guide.
What the calculator assumes
The calculator starts from sourced figures so the worked example can be checked, then lets you replace every one of them. It never estimates what your house or flat is worth. The sale price is always your own figure. The illustrative price in the example is £250,000, chosen because it sits inside the Property Solvers conveyancing sample of properties under £300,000. It is not an average price or a valuation.
- Agent fee, 1.3 per cent including VAT, no minimum. Rightmove's figure for 2025, the lower of the two published averages.2 HomeOwners Alliance's 2026 average is 1.42 per cent.1 Replace it with your quote, and tick or untick the VAT box to match how the quote is written.
- Conveyancing fee, £1,316.52 including VAT. The Property Solvers average for a freehold sale, which excludes disbursements, so they sit on their own line.4 The lower HomeOwners Alliance figure of £929 includes disbursements, so using it here would count them twice.3
- Disbursements, £34. Two HM Land Registry official copies at £7 each5 plus £20, the top of the HomeOwners Alliance range for identity checks.3
- EPC, £120. The top of Reallymoving's range, used because the range is unmeasured.8 Set it to zero if you hold a certificate less than 10 years old.
- Removals, £867. The three-bedroom average from November 2025.14
- Mortgage balance, early repayment charge and exit fee, all zero. These depend entirely on your own mortgage, and there is no average worth using.11 Enter the balance and the charge from your offer or redemption figure. The charge can be entered as a percentage of the balance or in pounds.
- Other, zero. Use it for a leasehold management pack, a Home Report in Scotland, or anything else on your quotes.
Three numbers come out separately. The sale price is what the buyer pays. Net proceeds are the price minus these costs. What is left after also repaying the mortgage is the equity you walk away with, before any tax and before the costs of buying your next home, which are not included.
Work out your own selling costs
Put in your own expected sale price and the quotes you have.
Your selling costs
Enter your expected sale price to see the total.
Worked example, using the defaults above and an illustrative price of £250,000
| Cost | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Estate agent fee | £3,250 | Including VAT as quoted |
| Conveyancing fee | £1,316.52 | Including VAT as quoted |
| Disbursements | £34 | Passed on at cost |
| Energy Performance Certificate | £120 | |
| Removals | £867 | |
| Total | £5,587.52 | 2.24 per cent of the illustrative price |
The price is illustrative, there so the arithmetic can be checked.
The cost of selling calculator also has its own page, which adds what it leaves out and how each route changes the total. To set your sale price against real sales, see sold prices near you. For the agent's fee on its own, try the estate agent fees calculator.
Questions people ask about the cost of selling a house
Do you pay stamp duty when you sell a house?
No. Stamp duty falls on the buyer, so as a seller you meet it only on the home you move to next, if that purchase is over the threshold. In England it is Stamp Duty Land Tax, in Wales Land Transaction Tax, and Scotland has its own Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.
Are the costs of selling a house tax deductible?
Yes, where there is a taxable gain. HMRC lets you take the costs of buying, selling or improving the property off the gain, estate agents’ and solicitors’ fees among them. Decorating and other upkeep do not count. Selling the only home you have lived in usually means no Capital Gains Tax at all, so this matters mainly for a let, second or inherited property.
What percentage of the sale price does selling a house cost?
There is no single percentage, because the agent’s fee is usually the only cost charged as one, at 1.3 to 1.42 per cent including VAT on the published averages. Conveyancing, the EPC and removals are fixed sums. On an illustrative £250,000 freehold sale the published figures total £5,106 to £5,854, before any early repayment charge or tax.
The route changes the costs
The agent fee line is specific to one route. Each route has its own charges and its own trade between price, speed and certainty.
Not sure which fits? Answer three questions and we will suggest one.
Property auction
The seller pays the auction house its own fees, set out in its terms. The legal pack must be ready before the sale.
House-buying company
Companies publish their own terms on who pays legal costs. Check them against the price offered, not in place of it.
Find the route that fits you
Three questions, about 30 seconds. Your answers stay in your browser.
Question 1 of 3
Your best fit
What you give up:
Why this route
Close second: Property auction.
Selling in Scotland works differently, with a Home Report and offers over a closing date. The guides note where Scottish rules differ.
Get help with your sale
Leave your details and tell us how you would like to sell.
While you wait, the guide covers what to check before you agree to anything.
Sources
(24)
Numbers in the text link to these. Each was read on the date shown. How we research
- Estate Agent Fees, and how you can save
- How much are estate agent fees and how do they work?
- Conveyancing fees: what to expect in 2026
- Conveyancing fees: the essential guide (2026)
- HM Land Registry: Information Services fees
- Buying or selling your home: Energy Performance Certificates
- Find an energy assessor
- Energy Performance Certificates: compare costs
- Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, section 67: leasehold sales information requests
- Home buying and selling reform roadmap
- MCOB 12.3 Early repayment charges: regulated mortgage contracts
- Early Repayment Charges (ERCs)
- Mortgage fees and charges
- How much do removals cost?
- Tax when you sell your home: Private Residence Relief
- Tax when you sell your home: living away from your home
- HS283 Private Residence Relief (2026)
- Capital Gains Tax: what you pay it on, rates and allowances
- Report and pay Capital Gains Tax: if you sold a property in the UK on or after 6 April 2020
- Home Report
- Selling a home: transferring ownership (conveyancing)
- Stamp Duty Land Tax
- Land Transaction Tax guide
- Tax when you sell property: work out your gain