What It Actually Costs to Sell a House in the UK in 2026
The average UK high-street estate agent charges 1.42% including VAT. Against HM Land Registry's median sold price of £287,500 for the 12 months to March 2026, that's £4,083 to the agent, plus roughly £1,023 in conveyancing and £88 for an EPC — about £5,194, or 1.8% of the sale price, before you've paid a removals firm or a penny of any early repayment charge. But the headline percentage hides two things worth knowing: selling costs proportionally more in Liverpool (2.0%) than London (1.6%) because the fixed costs don't scale, and the fee you pay is a percentage of the whole price while the money you take home is only your equity — which is why a £4,083 fee can be 4.7% of what actually reaches your bank account.
Almost every guide to selling costs answers the question with a percentage. That's the least useful form of the answer, because a percentage of an unknown number is still an unknown number — and because the percentage isn't actually constant.
This article does it the other way round: real costs, in pounds, at the prices UK homes actually sell for, using HM Land Registry's Price Paid record of 635,379 arm's-length sales in the 12 months to 31 March 2026.
The short version
| Cost | Typical 2026 figure |
|---|---|
| Estate agent (sole agency, average) | 1.42% of sale price, inc VAT |
| Conveyancing (selling) | ~£1,023 |
| EPC | £60 – £120 (avg ~£88) |
| Removals | £334 – £2,243 |
| Mortgage early repayment charge | 1–5% of the balance, if you're in a fixed deal |
| Capital gains tax | 18% or 24% of the gain — only if it isn't your main home |
Sources: HomeOwners Alliance — Estate agent fees, HomeOwners Alliance — Cost of selling a house in 2026, GOV.UK — Capital Gains Tax rates.
What it costs in your city
The three unavoidable costs of selling — agent, conveyancer, EPC — applied to the real median sold price in each city. Agent fee at the 1.42% including-VAT average, conveyancing at £1,023, EPC at £88.
| City | Median sold price | Agent at 1.42% | Total to sell | As % of price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | £580,000 | £8,236 | £9,347 | 1.6% |
| Cambridge | £450,000 | £6,390 | £7,501 | 1.7% |
| Bristol | £350,000 | £4,970 | £6,081 | 1.7% |
| Southampton | £300,000 | £4,260 | £5,371 | 1.8% |
| UK median (all sales) | £287,500 | £4,083 | £5,194 | 1.8% |
| Leicester | £270,000 | £3,834 | £4,945 | 1.8% |
| Manchester | £250,000 | £3,550 | £4,661 | 1.9% |
| Leeds | £241,000 | £3,422 | £4,533 | 1.9% |
| Nottingham | £235,000 | £3,337 | £4,448 | 1.9% |
| Birmingham | £231,000 | £3,280 | £4,391 | 1.9% |
| Sheffield | £215,000 | £3,053 | £4,164 | 1.9% |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | £202,990 | £2,882 | £3,993 | 2.0% |
| Liverpool | £201,500 | £2,861 | £3,972 | 2.0% |
Median sold prices: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, arm's-length sales (category A), 12 months to 31 March 2026, analysed by Offrly. Cities shown where 200 or more qualifying sales were recorded. Agent, conveyancing and EPC figures as sourced above.
Two things fall out of this table that the headline percentage hides.
Selling is proportionally more expensive at the bottom. It costs 2.0% of the price to sell the median Liverpool home and 1.6% to sell the median London one. The commission is proportional, but conveyancing and the EPC are flat — about £1,111 of fixed cost that a £201,500 sale absorbs over a much smaller base than a £580,000 one. It's a small regressive wedge, and it's the same shape as the £10,000 EPC upgrade cap facing landlords, which is worth 11.2% of a median Stoke flat and 2.1% of a median London flat. Fixed costs in a market with a threefold regional price spread are never neutral.
The fixed-fee crossover is a real decision, not marketing. A £1,499 fixed-fee package saves £6,737 against commission on the median London sale and £1,362 on the median Liverpool sale. The absolute saving is four to five times larger in London — but the risk profile inverts: fixed fees are typically payable up front whether or not you complete, while no-sale-no-fee commission pays the agent only on completion. The higher your price and the more confident you are the property will sell, the more the fixed-fee model favours you. The cheaper your property and the more uncertain the sale, the more you're buying insurance with that commission.
The costs people forget
Mortgage early repayment charge
This is the one that most often dwarfs the agent fee, and it's absent from most "cost of selling" lists because it's conditional. If you're inside a fixed-rate deal, redeeming early typically costs 1% to 5% of the outstanding balance. On a £200,000 balance at 3%, that's £6,000 — more than the agent fee at the UK median price.
Check your mortgage offer or ask your lender for a redemption statement before you list. If you're porting the mortgage to a new property, the charge usually doesn't apply — but "usually" is doing real work in that sentence, and the answer depends on your lender and your timing. It's a five-minute phone call that can be worth thousands.
Removals
£334 to £811 for a one-bed; £1,397 to £2,243 for a five-bed, per the HomeOwners Alliance. Distance, packing services and storage all move this. It's genuinely variable and genuinely avoidable in part — but budget it, because it lands at the exact moment every other cost does.
Leasehold management pack
If you're selling a flat, the freeholder or managing agent charges for the management pack your buyer's solicitor will require. This is typically the ~£300 leasehold premium on conveyancing, and it can take weeks to arrive — which makes it a timing risk as much as a cost. Order it early.
Capital gains tax — main home vs everything else
If you're selling your only or main home, Private Residence Relief means you almost certainly pay nothing. If you're selling a second home, a buy-to-let or a property you've inherited and not lived in, you pay 18% or 24% of the gain above the £3,000 annual exempt amount, and you must report and pay within 60 days of completion — a deadline that catches people out because it runs from completion, not from the end of the tax year.
Source: GOV.UK — Capital Gains Tax rates, GOV.UK — Report and pay your Capital Gains Tax.
The reframe: it's a percentage of your equity, not your price
Here is the part almost nobody writes down.
The agent charges a percentage of the whole sale price. What you actually walk away with is your equity — the price minus whatever's left on the mortgage. Those are very different numbers, and the fee is a much bigger share of the second one.
Take the UK median sale at £287,500 with £200,000 still outstanding on the mortgage:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Sale price | £287,500 |
| Mortgage redeemed | −£200,000 |
| Gross equity | £87,500 |
| Agent fee at 1.42% | −£4,083 |
| Conveyancing + EPC | −£1,111 |
| Net proceeds | £82,306 |
The agent's £4,083 is 1.42% of the price — and 4.7% of your equity. Add a £6,000 early repayment charge and the total cost of selling reaches £11,194, which is 12.8% of the equity you thought you had. The percentage on the agent's letterhead was never the number that mattered to you.
This reframe changes two decisions:
- Negotiating the fee is worth more than it looks. Moving from 1.8% to 1.2% including VAT on that sale saves £1,725 — which is 2.0% of your equity, not 0.6% of anything. It's the highest hourly rate available to you in the entire transaction.
- The asking price matters more than the fee. A 1% difference in what you achieve on a £287,500 sale is £2,875 — 3.3% of your equity, and considerably more than you'll save by grinding the agent down. Which is the whole argument for knowing what the property is genuinely worth before anyone else tells you.
Where the real money is
Every cost on this page is between roughly £2,900 and £11,000, and the ones you can influence you can influence by hundreds or low thousands. The sale price moves by tens of thousands.
The single most expensive mistake in selling a house isn't paying 1.8% instead of 1.2%. It's accepting an agent's valuation — high or low — without an independent view. An agent's number is a pitch: too high wins the instruction and then bleeds into months of reductions; too low sells quickly and cheaply. Neither is a valuation.
Offrly's free valuation is regression-based pricing on photo-aware, micro-neighbourhood-aware comparables — an independent second opinion built from what actually sold near you, not what someone hopes to list at. It takes about a minute and it's the cheapest thing you'll do in the whole process.
Get a free Offrly valuation → · Check what your area is actually selling for →
Sources
- HomeOwners Alliance — How much should you pay the estate agent? — the 1.42% including-VAT sole-agency average, the 1.2%–1.8% typical range, 3%–3.6% multi-agency, the 0.9%–3.6% full range, and the £1,499 fixed-fee example.
- HomeOwners Alliance — Cost of selling a house in 2026 — conveyancing at £610–£950 plus leasehold and mortgage premiums, EPC at £60–£120, and removals from £334 (one-bed) to £2,243 (five-bed).
- GOV.UK — Capital Gains Tax rates — the 18% and 24% rates and the £3,000 annual exempt amount.
- GOV.UK — Report and pay your Capital Gains Tax — the 60-day reporting and payment deadline for UK residential property.
- HM Land Registry Price Paid Data — arm's-length residential sales (category A), 12 months to 31 March 2026 (635,379 transactions), analysed by Offrly for all median sold prices. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Disclaimer: Estate agent, conveyancing, EPC and removals figures are market averages from the sources linked above and will vary materially by agent, firm, property and region — always get written quotes. Median sold prices are computed from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data and describe what sold in each city over the stated window, not what any individual property is worth. This article is not tax or legal advice; capital gains, leasehold and mortgage-redemption questions should go to a qualified adviser. Offrly valuations are indicative market guidance, not regulated valuations or financial advice — use a RICS-qualified surveyor for mortgage, insurance or probate purposes.
Questions
How much does it cost to sell a house in the UK in 2026?
For a typical UK home at HM Land Registry's £287,500 median sold price (12 months to March 2026), expect roughly £5,194 — about £4,083 in estate agent commission at the 1.42% including-VAT average, £1,023 in conveyancing and £88 for an EPC. That's 1.8% of the sale price. Removals (£334 to £2,243 depending on property size and distance), any mortgage early repayment charge, and capital gains tax if it isn't your main home all sit on top.
What is the average estate agent fee in the UK in 2026?
The average high-street sole-agency fee is 1.42% including VAT, according to the HomeOwners Alliance. Typical sole agency quotes run 1.2% to 1.8% including VAT. Multi-agency agreements average 3% to 3.6% including VAT because you only pay whichever agent completes the sale. Across all arrangements the full range is roughly 0.9% to 3.6%. Fixed-fee and online agents charge a flat sum instead — around £1,499 is a common package price — but it is usually payable up front whether or not the property sells.
Do you pay estate agent fees if the house doesn't sell?
With a traditional no-sale-no-fee commission agreement, no — the commission is only payable on completion. With a fixed-fee or online agent, usually yes: the fee is typically payable up front regardless of whether the sale completes. That is the core trade-off between the two models. On a low-value property the fixed fee is often cheaper in absolute terms; on a property that may struggle to sell, the commission model shifts the risk to the agent.
How much are conveyancing fees when selling a house?
Around £1,023 on average to sell, with a typical range of about £610 to £1,300 for the legal work itself. Leasehold properties usually add roughly £300 because of the extra work obtaining the management pack, and a mortgaged property adds around £50. Disbursements — third-party costs the conveyancer pays on your behalf — sit on top of the quoted legal fee, so always ask whether a quote is inclusive.
Do I need an EPC to sell my house?
Yes. You must have a valid Energy Performance Certificate to market a property for sale in England and Wales, and it must be commissioned before the property goes on the market. An EPC costs roughly £60 to £120 and is valid for ten years, so if you bought within the last decade you may already have one — check the EPC register before paying for another.
Is the estate agent fee negotiable?
Yes, and it is one of the highest-return negotiations available to a seller because it costs nothing to attempt. Sole agency fees quoted at 1.5% to 1.8% can often be negotiated toward 1.0% to 1.2% plus VAT. On the £287,500 UK median, moving from 1.8% to 1.2% including VAT saves about £1,725 for one conversation. Ask what the fee covers, whether the tie-in period is negotiable, and whether the quoted figure includes VAT — the last one causes most of the confusion.
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