Selling your home can be a complex business, and in 2022 that’s truer than ever.
Despite house prices hitting record highs, selling your home needs more consideration than jumping when you’ve got the most to gain in your pocket.
Of course, selling a house isn’t pure profit.
There is the cost of selling a house in the first place, with fees to consider for solicitors and estate agents as well as the work needed to ensure a home is ready to go on the market.
How much does it cost to sell a house?
The cost of selling a house will always vary from person to person. Even two people trying to sell the same property will likely end up with different costs depending on their choice of solicitors and estate agents.
Ensuring a home is fit for sale can require a fair amount of money being spent, and some costs can emerge after an offer has been accepted. For example, there may be a service needed on the boiler, or a safety check needed on a wood-burning stove.
The average value of a house in the UK in 2022 is around £268,349, as per the latest government data. Property comparison site CompareMyMove puts the average cost of selling a house at around £5,700, after considering average fees from estate agents, conveyancing, Energy Performance Certificates (EPC), removals, and porting a mortgage.
This can range from below £5,000 to over £8,000, depending on individual needs and services taken on.
Of course, certain variables can be reduced or taken out of the equation. You could hire a vehicle for the day, for instance, and move your own furniture. Regardless, there are necessities that cannot be avoided, and invariably you will need to pay a considerable portion to sell your home.
Estate agent fees are likely to be the highest part of your overall cost, with high street estate agent fees a small percentage of the final sale price. Depending on the value of your home, this could be in the high hundreds or the low thousands. Fortunately, these charges tend to come at the end of the process once the house has been officially sold, so it doesn’t require you to save that sum up front.
Fees for selling your house
Fees can accumulate from all kinds of sources.
Let’s break down some of the individual commitments and what they pay for in a house sale.
Estate agents
Estate agent fees go towards:
- valuing your home
- marketing your home
- arranging viewings
- managing offers and negotiations
Many of these you could theoretically do yourself, but you will be missing out on expert knowledge that estate agents have built up over years working in the property market.
Estate agents also have accounts with the big property websites to get your home in front of as many potential buyers as possible and reputable names will draw more attention.
Buyers that come through estate agents will also have been duly checked and had the source of their finances verified.
Conveyancing
Conveyancing is the legal process of moving a title of home ownership from one party to another.
It’s a complex and document-heavy process that should ideally be done by a conveyancer or solicitor.
Their work will include making enquiries with the local authority and searching for water and environmental factors that may affect the property like drainage, flood risks and historical work that may have affected the surrounding land.
Conveyancing is something else that can be undertaken yourself, but conveyancers understand the process far better than the average person and are not as likely to make oversights in the process.
Conveyancers may also have professional indemnity insurance, which offers them protection from claims of faults by either side in the house-buying process.
You’re likely to pay a conveyancer for every search and service that they carry out. Conveyancer and solicitor fees for selling a house can vary but are never cheap, so as with estate agents, it’s best to shop around.
Removals
Moving furniture from one property to another is probably the most straightforward part of the process, but that doesn’t make it easy as many can attest.
If you’ve already got the muscle, costs of removals can be saved by hiring a van or light commercial vehicle to move the heaviest stuff around and getting stuck in yourself.
If not, a removal company will take away some of the stress by providing the vehicle and handling the loading and unloading of your possessions.
Fee structure will vary from business to business; some may charge a flat fee for the work based on time. Other firms might base it on size and number of boxes as well as number of appliances, or charge per the hour.
EPC
The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) denotes how energy efficient a property is. It’s a legal requirement to have a one to sell a home, and each is valid for 10 years.
The EPC must be available to potential buyers before the house goes to market, so it will be one of the earliest tasks to check off your list.
Your estate agents will likely handle obtaining a EPC on your behalf, but for DIY sales an accredited assessor can be found using the Gov.uk website.
How much do estate agents charge for selling a house?
Estate agents charge in different ways depending on your property, and there are typically key contrasts between high street agencies and their online-only counterparts.
Online agents, for example, are likely to want upfront payment.
These payments will also represent different packages depending on which services included, while high street agents will tend to include most of what you need to sell a house – ‘for sale’ signs and all.
The payment structure of online estate agents tends to be more ‘modular’, with extras like hosted tours needing extra payment on top of the core fees.
This permits greater flexibility for customers who may feel they can save money by mixing in some of their own work, ensuring they only pay for the things they consider to be too costly or time-consuming.
High street estate agents typically charge at a percentage of the final sale price, ranging from around 0.7% to 3%.
Online estate agents, conversely, after taking upfront payment, sometimes add a small percentage of the final sale price. Fees typically range from £499 to £999.
How much are solicitors’ fees for selling a house?
Solicitors will provide a lot of oversight during a house sale, offering expert advice and communicating with the other party’s solicitor to ensure a smooth exchange of documents and information.
The majority of your solicitor’s work will be involved in conveyancing, which will typically range in cost from around £799 to £1,799.
This will vary depending on how complex the sale of your home is in terms of legal matters and extra details to consider. Conveyancing disbursements are less costly for selling a house than for buying, and will typically include small payments for bank transfers and land registry enquiries.
Some solicitors will offer a fixed fee service for conveyancing – something worth knowing when considering who is best to hire.
What was the average selling price of UK houses in 2021?
By the end of 2021, the average price of a house in the UK sat at £274,712, according to the UK House Price Index.
This is slightly about the UK average for property value for the same year, which was slightly above £270,500.
The average price of a UK house in January 2021 was £249,888, demonstrating an increase of £24,824 across 2021 and a percentage increase of 9.93%.
For December 2021, the annual price change was 10.8%, showing not only growth leading from 2021 into 2022, but growth from 2020 into 2021. The monthly price change was a small increase of 0.8%.
What will the average selling price of UK houses in 2022 be?
The housing market can be incredibly volatile, and events both national and global can take place overnight that send house prices soaring or tumbling.
While it is still too early to say for certain, data from the end of 2021 – as well as UK House Price Index and mortgage approval data from early 2022 – suggest increasing growth, at least for now.
Average house prices showed a roughly 1% increase from January 2022 to February 2022, with the average price increasing by about £5,000.
UK House Price Index data displays an increase from 476.10 points in December 2021 to 477.24 points in January 2022. Year-over-year growth for February 2022 also sits at 10.8%, demonstrating steady growth over the past 12 months that seems to be in the right place to continue.
Challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic have driven significant growth in house prices over the past two years. While the first lockdowns caused an initial slump in the market, the easing of restrictions in June 2020 saw a big resurgence.
July 2020 saw the introduction of a stimulus in the form of a stamp duty holiday, which allowed buyers to save thousands off their tax bill when buying a home. Observations of the data from around that time suggest that the surge in house prices that followed actually cancelled out the savings, but the effects had already taken place.
With 2022 looking to be a year wherein borrowing becomes more expensive – thanks in part to the Bank of England increasing the base rate from 0.25% to 0.5% and interest rates set to reach 1.25% by the end of the year – it is likely that the market may wind down slightly, with the majority of house sales having taken place.
This may mean a decrease in house selling prices across 2022, but ultimately, time will tell.
Who should you use to help sell your house in 2022?
For a local and trustworthy estate agent to help sell your home in Cheadle, look no further than the Mistoria Estate Agents Cheadle.
We can answer any of your questions on how to sell a house and ensure that you get the best price for the value of your home.
Our experienced team is on hand to guide you through the process and outline our fees in a clear, transparent way.
To find out more about the services offered by our award-winning real estate agency, contact us today.
