How Much Does It Cost to Sell a House?

Selling a house in the UK in 2026 costs most people between roughly £5,000 and £8,000. On an average home worth around £290,000, the typical bill is about £5,000: estate-agent commission of roughly 1.42% including VAT (about £4,000), conveyancing of £610–£950 plus disbursements, and an EPC at £60–£120. On top of that you may pay for removals, a mortgage early-repayment charge, and Capital Gains Tax if the property is not your main home. Selling to a genuine cash buyer removes the estate-agent fee entirely and usually the legal fees too, but you accept a lower price in return. Below is exactly where every pound goes, with a worked example.

What does it actually cost to sell a house in the UK?

There is no single sticker price for selling a home, because the total depends on your sale price, where you live, which professionals you use and how well you negotiate. That said, the shape of the bill is predictable. For a typical £290,000 property sold through a high-street agent, here is what you are looking at.

Cost	Typical range (2026)	On a £290,000 sale
Estate-agent fee (sole agency, incl. VAT)	0.9%–3.6%	£4,118
Conveyancing (legal fee)	£610–£950	£700
Disbursements (searches, transfers, ID)	£200–£400	£300
Energy Performance Certificate	£60–£120	£60
Removals	£400–£2,200	£900
Typical total	—	£6,078

Notice what is missing from that table: any mortgage early-repayment charge, and any Capital Gains Tax. Neither applies to everyone, but when they do apply they can dwarf everything else, so they get their own sections below.

Estate-agent fees: the biggest single cost

For most sellers, the estate agent takes the largest slice by far. The average sole-agency high-street fee in 2026 is 1.42% including VAT, which is roughly £4,100 on a £290,000 home. The full range is wide: anywhere from 0.9% to 3.6% depending on the agent, your area and the type of contract.

The contract matters more than people realise. A sole agency agreement gives one agent the instruction and carries the lowest fee. A multi-agency agreement lets several agents compete, which can shift a stubborn property but typically costs 2.5% to 3.6% because only the winner gets paid. Watch for sole selling rights, which is not the same as sole agency: under sole selling rights the agent earns their fee even if you find the buyer yourself.

Two contract clauses deserve a hard look before you sign. The tie-in period locks you to one agent for a fixed number of weeks, so if they underperform you cannot switch without waiting it out. And a ready, willing and able purchaser clause can oblige you to pay commission if the agent introduces a buyer who is able to proceed, even if you later pull out of the sale. Neither is necessarily a dealbreaker, but both are negotiable, and a fair agent will explain them plainly rather than hurry you past them.

Two things are worth knowing. First, The Property Ombudsman requires agents to quote fees inclusive of VAT, so if a figure looks suspiciously low, ask whether the 20% has been added. Second, the fee is negotiable, and agents expect you to try. Shaving a sole-agency fee from 1.5% to 1.2% on a £290,000 sale keeps £870 in your pocket for one slightly awkward conversation. Online agents charge a fixed fee instead of a percentage, often a few hundred to around a thousand pounds, though you usually pay upfront whether or not the house sells and you take on more of the legwork. Our guide to estate-agent fees in 2026 breaks down every contract type.

Conveyancing and legal fees when selling

You need a conveyancer or solicitor to handle the legal transfer of ownership. Their bill has two parts. The legal fee is what they charge for the work, usually £610–£950 when you are selling. The disbursements are third-party costs they pay on your behalf: the transfer of ownership at HM Land Registry (typically £200–£300), obtaining your title documents, identity checks and bank-transfer fees.

Two situations push this higher. If your property is leasehold, expect roughly £300 more, because your solicitor has to obtain a management pack from the freeholder or managing agent and deal with the extra paperwork. If you have a mortgage to redeem, there is a little more admin too. The single best way to keep this cost down is to compare a few quotes on a like-for-like basis, making sure disbursements are itemised rather than buried. Our seller’s guide to conveyancing and our breakdown of conveyancing fees explain what each line should be.

A quote that looks cheap on the legal fee but omits disbursements is not cheap, it is incomplete. Always ask for the total figure you will actually pay on completion.

EPC, removals and the costs people forget

By law you must have a valid Energy Performance Certificate before you market the property, and it must be commissioned before the first viewing. An EPC costs £60–£120 and lasts ten years, so if you bought recently you may already have one.

Removals are the cost that varies most, because it depends on how much you own and how far it is going. As a rough guide:

Property size	Local move	Longer distance
1 bedroom	£334	£811
2 bedrooms	£487	£1,037
3 bedrooms	£731	£1,446
4 bedrooms	£1,042	£1,837
5 bedrooms	£1,397	£2,243

Book early, and avoid Fridays and the end of the month when demand peaks, and most firms will offer a discount. Get three companies to quote after seeing your home, not over the phone.

Mortgage costs: early-repayment charges and exit fees

If you are still inside a fixed or discounted mortgage deal, redeeming it early can trigger an early-repayment charge (ERC). This is usually 1% to 5% of the outstanding balance, often tapering down the closer you get to the end of the deal. On a £180,000 balance, a 2% ERC is £3,600, which is more than the estate-agent fee on many homes. There is also a small mortgage exit or deeds-release fee, typically £50–£300.

Before you do anything else, dig out your mortgage paperwork and check the ERC. If you are buying another home, you may be able to port the same deal to the new property and sidestep the charge altogether, so it is worth asking your lender before you commit to a sale date.

Do you pay Capital Gains Tax when you sell?

For most people the answer is no. If the property has been your only or main home throughout, Private Residence Relief means the gain is exempt and there is nothing to pay. This is why the family home usually escapes CGT entirely.

It is different for a second home, holiday let or buy-to-let. Since 30 October 2024, gains on residential property that is not your main home are taxed at 18% for gains within the basic-rate band and 24% above it. You get an annual exempt amount of £3,000 (or £6,000 for a couple who own jointly), and you must report and pay any CGT within 60 days of completion. Miss that window and HMRC charges penalties and interest. These are HM Revenue & Customs rules; our guide on reducing Capital Gains Tax legitimately covers the reliefs worth claiming.

What about buying and selling at the same time?

If you are moving up or down the ladder, the selling costs above are only half the picture. On the purchase side you will usually face Stamp Duty Land Tax, a mortgage arrangement fee, a valuation or survey, and the buyer’s share of conveyancing. Removals are a shared cost you only pay once. The trap here is timing: a broken chain can leave you paying for two sets of professionals twice if a sale collapses and you have to start again, which is exactly why chain security is worth so much.

A worked example: selling a £290,000 home

Meet a homeowner with a £290,000 three-bedroom house, a £180,000 mortgage that is out of its fixed period (so no ERC), and it is their main home (so no CGT). Selling through a high-street agent, their costs look like this:

Item	Cost
Estate agent at 1.42% incl. VAT	£4,118
Conveyancing legal fee	£700
Disbursements	£300
EPC	£60
Removals (3-bed, local)	£731
Mortgage exit fee	£100
Total cost of selling	£6,009

That is roughly 2.1% of the sale price. If the same seller were inside a fixed deal with a 2% ERC on the £180,000 balance, the bill would jump by £3,600 to nearly £9,600, which shows why the mortgage is the number to check first.

How a cash sale changes the maths

Selling to a genuine cash buyer flips the cost structure. There is no estate-agent fee, and a reputable cash-buying company usually covers your legal fees too. You still need a valid EPC and you still pay removals and any mortgage charge, but the two biggest line items vanish. On paper you save the best part of £5,000.

Here is the honest trade-off, side by side.

	High-street sale	Vetted cash sale
Likely price	Full market value	80–92% of value
Estate-agent fee	~£4,000	£0
Legal fees	You pay	Usually covered
Typical timescale	3–6 months	~27 days
Risk of collapse	~30%	Near zero

The saving on fees rarely outweighs the discount on price, so a cash sale is not about being cheaper overall. It is about speed, certainty and avoiding a fragile chain. You can see how the numbers stack up in our guides to cash house buyers and what percentage of market value cash buyers pay.

Does where you live change the cost?

Yes, more than most sellers expect. Estate-agent commission tends to run higher in London and the South East, where 1.5% to 2% is common, and lower across parts of the North and Midlands, where competition and lower average prices pull the percentage down. But a percentage cuts both ways: 1.2% on a £600,000 London flat is £7,200, while 1.6% on a £190,000 terrace in the North East is around £3,040. The rate looks worse in the North, the cheque is far bigger in the South.

Conveyancing is more uniform nationally, though searches cost a little more in some council areas. It is worth knowing that quick-sale demand is not evenly spread either. On our own 2025 figures the busiest regions for fast, chain-free sales were the Midlands and the North, which tend to have more homeowners weighing certainty against squeezing out the last few thousand pounds.

What does it cost to sell at auction?

Auction is a genuine third route, and it has its own fee structure. A traditional auctioneer typically charges commission of around 2% plus VAT of the sale price, sometimes with an entry or catalogue fee on top of a few hundred pounds. The attraction is a fixed, binding timetable: contracts exchange on the fall of the hammer and completion usually follows within 20 to 28 days, which removes the drawn-out uncertainty of a private-treaty sale.

The Modern Method of Auction works differently. Here the buyer often pays a non-refundable reservation fee, which can make the headline cost to you as the seller look lower, but that fee effectively comes out of what a buyer is willing to bid, so it is not the free lunch it appears. Auction suits unusual, tenanted or problem properties that a nervous mortgage buyer would shy away from. Our guides to selling at auction and the modern method of auction set out the real numbers.

The hidden costs that quietly eat your equity

The line-item fees are the easy part to plan for. The costs that do more damage are the ones that never appear on an invoice:

• Overpricing. A home listed too high sits on the market, goes stale, and then gets chipped down by buyers who can see how long it has been listed. The eventual reduction usually costs far more than any agent fee you were trying to justify.
• Gazundering. A buyer who drops their offer at the last minute, days before exchange, when they know you are committed to your onward move. It is legal, it is grim, and it is common in a slow market.
• Bridging or double running costs. If your onward purchase depends on your sale and the timing slips, you may face bridging finance or two mortgages at once. This is where a collapsed chain gets genuinely expensive.
• Carrying an empty property. An inherited or vacant home still costs you in council tax, insurance and maintenance every month it stands unsold, which is money that never shows up in a “cost of selling” calculator.

These are the costs a fast, certain sale is really designed to avoid. When people say a cash sale “paid for itself”, this is usually what they mean: not the saved commission, but the months of carrying costs and the chain that never collapsed. If a broken chain is your worry, our guide on how we-buy-any-house services work explains the certainty trade-off in full.

When selling the cheap way is a false economy

It would be easy for a company like ours to tell every seller that fast is best. It is not. If your home is in good order, in a decent location, and you have three to six months to spare, the open market will almost always net you more, even after you have paid the agent and the solicitor. The extra you achieve on price usually beats the fees you save by going fast.

A fast, low-fee sale earns its keep in specific situations: a broken chain you need to rescue, a looming repossession, a divorce or probate that everyone wants finished, an inherited property standing empty and costing money, or a home that simply will not sell because of its condition or an unusual feature. In those cases the certainty is the point, and the fee saving is a bonus. If you are weighing it up, our sell house fast guide sets out who it suits and who it does not.

Why the timeline is a cost in itself

Every month a sale drags on has a price, even if no one invoices you for it. You keep paying the mortgage, the council tax, the insurance and the upkeep on a home you are trying to leave. If you are buying onward, a slow sale can cost you the property you wanted while you waited. The average open-market sale takes three to six months from listing to completion, and roughly a third fall through at least once along the way, sending you back to the start. That is the real reason speed carries value: not because fast is glamorous, but because time quietly spends your money and your patience. Weigh the certainty of a shorter, binding timeline against the extra a longer open-market campaign might, or might not, deliver.

How to cut the cost of selling

You have more control than you think:

• Negotiate the agent’s fee and favour a sole-agency contract over multi-agency or sole selling rights.
• Compare three conveyancing quotes on a total-cost basis, disbursements included.
• Reuse a valid EPC if you have one from the last ten years.
• Book removals early and midweek, and declutter first so there is less to move.
• Check your mortgage ERC and ask about porting before you fix a completion date.
• Price realistically from day one. A home that lingers gets chipped down by buyers far more than a fair asking price ever costs you.

Start by knowing your number. Get a free, no-obligation idea of what your home is worth with our house valuation guide and free valuation tool, then decide which route fits your timeline.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to sell a £300,000 house?

Budget around £6,000–£6,500 through a high-street agent: roughly £4,260 in commission at 1.42% including VAT, £900–£1,100 in conveyancing and disbursements, £60–£120 for an EPC, and removals on top. Add any mortgage early-repayment charge.

Who pays the estate agent, the buyer or the seller?

The seller pays the estate-agent fee. Buyers do not pay commission to the seller’s agent.

Do I pay Capital Gains Tax on my own home?

No. Private Residence Relief exempts the gain on your only or main home. CGT applies to second homes and buy-to-lets at 18% or 24%, reportable within 60 days of completion.

Is it cheaper to sell to a cash buyer?

Your selling costs are far lower because there is no agent fee and legal fees are usually covered, but a cash buyer pays below market value, so you are not better off overall. You gain speed and certainty rather than money.

Can I sell my house without an estate agent?

Yes. You can use a fixed-fee online agent, sell privately, or sell to a cash buyer or at auction. Each removes or reduces commission, and each has trade-offs in reach, speed and price.

When do I pay the selling costs?

Most costs, including the agent’s commission and conveyancing, are settled on completion out of the sale proceeds. The EPC and any upfront online-agent fee are paid earlier, at the point of marketing.

Not sure which route leaves you better off? Compare a real cash offer against your likely open-market net figure with a free, no-obligation valuation at Ready Steady Sell, and decide with the numbers in front of you.