Moving home: costs, conveyancing and the buying process
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In short: Moving home costs more than the deposit: you pay property tax that depends on where the home is, conveyancing and search fees, an official registration fee, and usually a survey, mortgage fees, estate agent fees if you are selling, and removals.
Moving home costs more than the deposit: you pay property tax that depends on where the home is, conveyancing and search fees, an official registration fee, and usually a survey, mortgage fees, estate agent fees if you are selling, and removals. This section explains each cost with official figures, shows how conveyancing works and how long it takes, and gives you calculators for every UK nation.
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- Kaiser Khan, Editorial Director
What does moving home cost?
The costs fall into three groups. Property tax is set by law and depends on the price, where the home is and your circumstances. Official fees — such as HM Land Registry's registration fee — are also set by law. Everything else, including your conveyancer's legal fee, searches, the survey, mortgage fees, estate agent fees and removals, is set by the firms you choose, so the only reliable figures are your own written quotes.
Add up your own figures with the total cost of moving calculator, and read the cost of moving house for worked examples in each nation.
Which property tax do I pay, and how much?
The tax depends on where the property is, not where you live. Each is charged in slices, so each rate applies only to the part of the price in its band.
- England and Northern Ireland — Stamp Duty Land Tax
0% to £125,000, then 2%, 5%, 10% and 12%. First-time buyers pay 0% to £300,000 and 5% to £500,000 on homes up to £500,000. Additional properties pay 5 percentage points more; non-UK residents 2 more. Stamp Duty calculator.
- Wales — Land Transaction Tax
0% to £225,000, then 6%, 7.5%, 10% and 12%, with a separate higher-rates table for additional properties. There is no first-time buyer relief. LTT calculator.
- Scotland — Land and Buildings Transaction Tax
0% to £145,000, then 2%, 5%, 10% and 12%. First-time buyers pay nothing on the first £175,000, and the Additional Dwelling Supplement adds 8% of the whole price for additional homes. LBTT calculator.
How does conveyancing work?
Conveyancing is the legal work of transferring ownership. Your conveyancer checks the title, orders searches, raises enquiries with the seller's conveyancer, reports to you and your lender, exchanges contracts, completes the purchase, pays the property tax and registers you as the owner.
Read what happens when buying, when selling and when you are buying and selling at the same time, and see how long conveyancing takes stage by stage. Scotland's process is different — offers are made through solicitors and the deal is concluded by missives.
What about leasehold, new builds and other special cases?
Some purchases need extra legal work and cost more to handle: a leasehold home, a new build, shared ownership, adding or removing an owner and remortgaging. Each guide explains what is different and the tax rules that apply.
How do I choose a conveyancer and compare quotes?
Use a solicitor regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority or a licensed conveyancer regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, check they are on your lender's panel if you have a mortgage, and ask whether anyone is paid for referring you. How to choose a conveyancer covers the checks, and the conveyancing quotes page lets you compare up to three quotes line by line.
Where our figures come from
Tax rates come from GOV.UK and HMRC, the Welsh Revenue Authority and Revenue Scotland; registration fees from HM Land Registry and the Registers of Scotland fees order; timings from GOV.UK and the government's home buying and selling reform roadmap. Each figure was checked on 25 September 2026 and every calculator is tested against the official worked examples. We do not quote industry 'averages' for legal fees, surveys or removals, because there is no official source for them.
Go deeper on moving home: costs, conveyancing and the buying process
Conveyancing costs and fees explained (2026)
A conveyancing quote can run to a dozen lines, and it isn't always clear which ones you can shop around on. This guide splits the bill into three parts, shows which amounts are set by law or official fee tables and which are set by suppliers, and explains when VAT is added. It finishes with a worked example for a £325,000 freehold purchase in England.
Read the explainer →How long does conveyancing take? Stages, who does what and common delays
Conveyancing works like a relay. The buyer's and seller's conveyancers, a mortgage lender, a surveyor, the council, search companies and HM Land Registry all have a part to play, and the slowest one sets the pace. This guide goes through each stage in England and Wales, shows who does what, explains exchange and completion, and lists the deadlines after you move. Scotland's process is different and has its own section.
Read the explainer →How to choose a conveyancer: checks, lender panels, referral fees and red flags
Your conveyancer will handle what is probably the largest payment you'll ever make, so the choice matters more than the headline fee. This guide explains the types of property lawyer, how to check a firm is genuine, what the Law Society's quality mark tells you, the rules on referral fees, and how to complain.
Read the explainer →How much does it cost to move house? Buying, selling and moving costs
There's no official figure for the average cost of moving house, and the ranges quoted online usually come from comparison or removal companies. What you can pin down are the taxes and registration fees, which are set by law. This guide works those out for three common moves and lists every other cost you'll need a written quote for, so you can build your own budget.
Read the explainer →Conveyancing when buying a house: what your conveyancer does and what you need to do
Conveyancing is the legal work that transfers ownership of a home. In England and Wales it starts when your offer is accepted and ends when you are registered as the owner, and nothing is legally binding until contracts are exchanged. This guide goes through each stage, separates what your conveyancer does from what only you can do, and explains how Scotland and Northern Ireland differ.
Read the explainer →Conveyancing when selling a house: forms, your mortgage, agent fees and what your conveyancer does
In England and Wales the seller is responsible for drawing up the contract, and missing paperwork on the seller's side is a common early hold-up. The Law Society encourages sellers to instruct a conveyancer as early as possible, ideally before the home goes on the market. This guide covers the forms, what must go in your listing, paying off your mortgage, the agent's fee, completion and Capital Gains Tax.
Read the explainer →Buying and selling a house at the same time: chains, timing, bridging and Stamp Duty
When you sell one home and buy another, your two deals become links in a chain, and each link depends on the others. This guide explains how conveyancers keep a chain together and what your options are if the timing doesn't work. It also shows, with worked figures, what buying before you sell costs in tax.
Read the explainer →Remortgage conveyancing: the legal work, free legal deals, Land Registry fees and delays
Moving your mortgage to a new lender is far simpler than buying a home, because no one else's property or money changes hands. The new lender still needs a conveyancer to confirm its security, though. Extra work, such as adding someone to the deeds or sorting out a lease problem, can turn a routine remortgage into a longer job.
Read the explainer →Leasehold conveyancing: buying or selling a leasehold home in England and Wales
Most flats in England and Wales, and some houses, are leasehold. You own the right to live in the home for a fixed number of years, and a landlord (often called the freeholder) owns the building or land. That changes what your conveyancer has to check and what a seller has to supply. This guide covers the leasehold steps and the 2026 position on reform, and links to our other guides for costs and timings.
Read the explainer →New build conveyancing: reservation, exchange deadlines, warranties and snagging
With a new build you're buying from a company, often before the home is finished, on the developer's own contract. The developer sets the reservation terms, the exchange deadline and the completion notice, and your protection comes from the warranty and the consumer code the developer has signed up to. This guide explains those differences, mainly for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with notes on Scotland.
Read the explainer →Shared ownership conveyancing: the lease, Stamp Duty choices and selling your share
Shared ownership lets you buy a share of a home, usually between 25% and 75% (10% on some homes), and pay rent on the rest. Legally you're a leaseholder, and the lease, usually based on Homes England's model, decides what you can do and what it costs. This guide covers what's specific to shared ownership conveyancing in England, with notes on Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Read the explainer →Transfer of equity: adding or removing someone from your property
A transfer of equity changes who owns a home without it being sold. You might be adding a partner, removing a former partner, or moving the home into one person's name. The legal work is shorter than a purchase, but the tax can be a surprise, because taking on a share of the mortgage counts as paying for the property. This guide covers the process in England and Wales, and the tax in England, Wales and Scotland.
Read the explainer →
Common questions
- How much does it cost to move house?
- It depends on the price, where you buy, whether you are also selling and the quotes you get. Property tax can be nothing — for example for a first-time buyer at £300,000 in England — or tens of thousands of pounds, and legal, survey, agent and removal costs are set by the firms you use.
- How long does it take to buy a house?
- GOV.UK says buying a home takes about 5 months on average, and the government's 2026 reform roadmap puts the time from an accepted offer to completion at around 120 days. How long your purchase takes depends on the chain, your mortgage, searches and, for leasehold homes, how quickly the landlord or managing agent answers enquiries.
- Do I need a solicitor to buy a house?
- Most buyers use a solicitor or licensed conveyancer. If you are borrowing, your lender will normally require a firm on its panel to act for it too.
- Is Stamp Duty the same across the UK?
- No. England and Northern Ireland have Stamp Duty Land Tax, Wales has Land Transaction Tax and Scotland has Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, each with its own bands, reliefs and surcharges.