The average cost to sell a home has now risen to over £5,400, taking into account factors like estate agency and conveyancing fees, according to new research from GetAgent.co.uk.
As part of its research, GetAgent utilised its ‘My Property Tracker’ tool to calculate the varying cost of selling a property up and down the country.
GetAgent’s ‘My Property Tracker’ monitors the cost of selling a home based on current property values, the average estate agent fee, the cost of conveyancing, disbursements (additional solicitor costs), as well as the Energy Performance Certificate report, which outlines how efficient your property is.
The figures show that currently across Britain, the average seller will spend £5,413 in order to sell their home.
Most upfront costs go on estate agency fees, accounting for 81% of the total cost, at £4,400.
Conveyancing makes up a further 14%, typically costing the seller £776, with disbursements and EPC costs accounting for the remaining 4%.
While estate agent fees may seem steep, they sit below 2.00% of the house price across every region of Great Britain, averaging at 1.52%.
With a current average house price of £527,979, London home sellers need to budget for the biggest outlay when selling, at £11,479.
With such high stakes work in the capital the average estate agents charge the most of all regions, with an average fee of 1.95% equating to £10,308 in the current market.
Though it’s likely this high percentage is skewed by a small number of prime transactions in the capital, where specialist agents charge higher fees to service some of the wealthiest homeowners.
Conveyancers also charge more than every other region, at £994.
It also costs more to sell in higher priced regions outside the capital, like the South East, at £7,100. The region correspondingly has the second highest house price of £391,400.
Similarly, in the South West, which contains some sought-after areas of natural beauty and therefore has a typical price of £321,200, you need to budget for sellers’ costs of £6,108.
It’s cheaper to sell in lower priced areas, as you only have to spend a small amount on costs like estate agents and lawyers.
In the North East selling costs come to around £3,300, with the region being the cheapest, with a typical house price of £161,000.
This is followed by Scotland, at £3,400 against a typical house price of £189,400, and then the North West, at £4,000 compared to an average house price of £215,600.
Colby Short, co-founder and CEO of GetAgent.co.uk, said: “Despite wider economic instability the housing market has stood strong in recent months, with only a marginal decline in house prices to date.
“This means that as a seller you’ll hopefully end up with a healthy profit when you do come to sell, but you still need to budget for the cost required to transact which is currently over £5,000 on average.
“Typically, the higher the house price the higher the costs will be, as most costs incurred are based on a percentage of your selling price and so you’ll need to come up with over £10,000 in London.”
He added: “While the biggest outlay is the fee paid to your estate agent, it’s money well spent, particularly in the current market where finding a legitimate buyer and making it through to completion has become all the harder.
“When dealing with such an expensive asset, it makes perfect sense to get the best professional help possible and we’ve seen how opting for a low, fixed-fee agent can backfire when it comes to price achieved and the quality of service provided.
“Similarly, when exchanging contracts if you use a quality conveyancer it can be the difference between securing a pain-free sale and being stressed out for months, so it’s not something to skimp out on.”
