Let’s start with the biggest cost you will have to buying your next home is your deposit. This is a cost that you can control to a point. Most lenders require that you put a 5% deposit down as a minimum and can increase this by as much as you have available and as much as you wish. So, depending on how much you have available and how much you need to spare for your other moving costs which we cover below you can decide to put as much or as little down as you wish. The more deposit you put down the cheaper your mortgage will become as you are borrowing less, and it may also reduce your interest rate.

When you come to submit your mortgage application into the lender you need to evidence your deposit at that point, this is typically done by providing your most recent bank statement or ISA statement showing the full amount in there. You do not hand your deposit over until just before completion at the end of the legal process and you pay that to your solicitor who will pass your deposit along with your funds from the lender and pass those to the seller on completion.

Stamp duty is a tax the government place on property transactions, which in this case is you buying a property from you to live in from somebody else. Depending on your circumstances stamp duty liability may be a particular amount or may not apply at all. In 2026, first time buyers have a stamp duty allowance of £300,000 meaning that they can buy a property under £300,000 and not pay any stamp duty at all. Whereas a home mover (somebody who already owns a property or has used their 1st time buyers’ allowance already) will pay stamp duty on anything over £125,000. If they buy anything over £300,000, the amount over that amount will be taxed at the following bands depending on the purchase price as follows:

£125,000 - £250,000 is charged at 2%, £250,001 to £925,000 is charged at 5%, £925,001 and above is charged at 10%.

The rate of stamp duty applicable is based on the purchase price, not the mortgage amount.

Stamp duty isn’t a tax you can avoid unfortunately, if you a liable for it due to your circumstances and your purchase price you will have to pay it. The only way you can reduce your stamp duty tax liability is to negotiate the purchase price. For example if you are a first-time buyer, you can negotiation a £305,000 property to under £300,000 to avoid stamp duty.

Typically, a solicitor will charge £1200 - £1,500 for a purchase only, this is when you a first-time buyer or are buying a new property without selling a current one.

For sale and purchase double due to the extra work needed on 2 transactions but solicitors will often offer you a discount for using them for both pieces of work. When it comes to the solicitor cheapest doesn’t mean best, like in every other product or service you get what you pay for. We advise contacting a few of the highest rated or recommended solicitors yourself to get a quote from them. But when you are speaking with them to get the quote get a feel for how helpful they are and how responsive, as this will give you a good idea how good their service is. If you do get a quote that is much lower than the others, you should be asking yourself why.

Your stamp duty and solicitor fees are paid to your solicitor in one payment when you pay your deposit at the end of the process. Your solicitor will provide you with a completion statement with the breakdown of all of your costs including the cost of their work, the stamp duty you owe and your deposit amount to be paid to the solicitor on completion. The solicitor will then pay your stamp duty on your behalf to the government.

When you apply for a mortgage, the lender will instruct a mortgage valuation which tell you the value of the property only, nothing more nothing less. If you want to find out the condition of the property in full, from the foundations up to the tiles on the roof and everything in between that is up to you to arrange. Typically, a survey costs between £300-500 depending on the size of the property. Having a survey is personal choice, but for full peace of mind we recommend getting a survey done by an independent surveyor so that you know the full condition of the property you are buying so you have no hidden expensive surprises when you move in.

We advise that you instruct a survey as early into the process as possible to help you identify any potential issues with the property early. If there are some issues to be fixed you have the time to work with the seller to have these rectified. If you wait too long into the process you will delay the process further which could cause the purchase to fall through.

Some advisers don’t charge a fee at all, but majority of independent advisers charge a fee ranging from £250 - £700 depending on the lenders they have access to, their experience or where they’re based. Like with any service, do your research to see how many lenders they have access to and if they have any reviews from previous clients. The more lenders the better as that ensures they have access to the best deals available and plenty of happy customers gives you confidence that they will do the same great job for you when you use them.

When you use an independent mortgage adviser, they will have access to 1,000s of mortgage products with a whole range of fees to factor into the overall best mortgage product that fits your needs. But the standard fees associated with mortgage products are arrangement fees – a fee that must be paid with a particular product either paid upfront or added to your mortgage. It may be that the cheapest option available to you does have a fee but is still the cheapest because it has a much lower interest rate on a larger loan saving you that money back on your monthly repayments over the life of the mortgage.

A valuation fee, many lenders offer a free valuation as an incentive to use them, but some lenders do charge a valuation fee to value the property for lending purposes with that fee passed onto the borrower. This is a cost that can be potentially avoided if another lender who is close to this lender in terms of true cost isn’t too much more expensive if they offer a free valuation. If you mortgage product does have a valuation fee that will be paid at the point the application is submitted to the lender.

Some lenders (Mainly specialist) lenders they charge a booking fee which is a form of admin fee paid on application which will cover the cost of the work they put into the case which may not complete due to the complex nature of the case.

All lenders require that the property you have bought to have adequate buildings insurance to provide financial cover for events occurring that will impact the property. This could be things such as flooding or malicious damage. All the time a lender holds a financial interest in your property (Holding the legal charge whilst you owe then the money you borrowed) they want to make sure that you keep the property in good condition and insure the property to make sure if anything happens to it the insurance company can put it right. This isn’t a cost you can avoid, but one you can get the best price on by shopping around yourself on a comparison website or using an independent broker who may have access to some lenders you can’t find yourself online.

Depending on the cost of the home insurance policy the insurance provider may give you 2 options to make payment for the upcoming 12 months. You can either pay it all upfront on day one or they will give you the option to spread the cost over 12 even monthly payments.

When you move into your home your 1st payment is often higher than the payment you have agreed to on your mortgage recommendation. This is because you pay a month in advance, you will then also pay for the number of days between your move in date and your direct debit date. For example, if you move into your new house on the 18th of the month and your direct debit is the 1st of the month you will pay a full month plus the number of days from the 18th of the month to the 1st.

This often catches people out so bare this in mind and have the extra funds ready to make the payment. Your lender will write to you beforehand before taking the payment to let you know what the payment will be and when they will take it to allow you to make arrangements to make that payment.

If you are currently renting a property there is a chance that you will make a rent and a mortgage payment in the same month depending on when your rent direct debit is due and the date your purchase completes. Best advice is to try and tie in your purchase completion date in with your rental payment, for example because you pay a month in advance for your rent, try to complete your purchase just before your next rental payment is due to use the full month you have already paid for and to buy yourself some time before the 1st higher mortgage payment is taken.

When you move into a new property the chances are you will have some current furniture to move with you whether than be just your bed from your parent’s house, or a full house worth of stuff. Either way you have some furniture to move, but how you move it will determine how much this costs you. If you don’t have much to move and you feel like you can manage it then you may hire a van for the day and do the work for yourself which will be cheaper than paying a removal company to move you.

But if you have lots of furniture, don’t want to move it or physically are unable to then hiring a removal company is a cost you will need to factor in. How much they charge you will depend on the amount of furniture they are moving for you and how complex the move is e.g. do you have some expensive and fragile items or moving up 6 flights of stairs?

If you can afford it and you have plenty of items to move, from personal experience we would highly recommend using a good removal company to move your items for you. This will take the stress out of your move both physically and mentally and you can enjoy the exciting parts of moving house like where you are going to put your furniture rather than humping a king-sized bed up 2 flights of stairs.

We expect the cost of buying a house to increase in line with the rising cost of all products and services. As the cost of all things increase through inflation, all services increase to reflect this. So, we expect solicitors and surveyors to increase their fees over time. On average property prices increase year on year so your deposit will need to increase also to match a 5 or 10% deposit on a larger property value. If property prices continue to increase your stamp duty liability will also increase as more of the property value will fall over the stamp duty thresholds.

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