What buying really costs
The price on the listing is not the cost of the purchase. On a GBP 300,000 freehold in England, stamp duty adds GBP 5,000, conveyancing adds GBP 900-4,500, the Land Registry adds about GBP 22-42, and the deposit of 5-10% must be cash you already hold.
| Cost item | On a GBP 300,000 home | On a GBP 750,000 home | What sets the figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deposit | GBP 15,000-30,000 | GBP 37,500-75,000 | 5-10% of the price; first 5% due within 1-2 weeks of the offer |
| Stamp duty | GBP 5,000 | GBP 27,500 | Banded slices; Wales and Scotland use their own rates |
| Conveyancing | GBP 900-4,500 | GBP 2,250-11,250 | 0.3-1.5% of price, or a fixed GBP 850-2,500 |
| Title search (PR1) | about GBP 2 online | about GBP 2 online | About GBP 7 by post; waived on first registration |
| Full register + title document (PR2 + PR3) | GBP 10-20 | GBP 10-20 | Flat entry cost per title |
| Searches package | 5-30 days to return | 5-30 days to return | GBP 30-70 per search to repeat if they expire before exchange |
| Land Registry application | about GBP 20 | about GBP 20 | Plus 0-5% of the price if a charge exceeds GBP 500,000 |
A straightforward freehold purchase runs 8-14 weeks from accepted offer to keys, and every week of it has an owner and a known failure mode.
The order matters. Searches are commissioned before exchange, not before offer, and the package — water, drainage, environmental, local authority and British Gas — takes 5-30 days to come back. Order late and exchange waits; order and then stall, and the searches can pass their 12-month validity at GBP 30-70 each to repeat.
The deposit moves in two parts: the first 5% within 1-2 weeks of an accepted offer, the balance at completion. Most lenders sit at 75-90% loan to value, so a first-time buyer at 5% deposit is exposed to a 5-10% move in value in the gap between exchange and completion.
The named failure modes are few: an expired search, a chain of more than four parties (add 4-8 weeks), a leasehold valuation that takes 2-3 months, and the fraudulent payment request. Each is covered in the sections below.
England and Northern Ireland band stamp duty so that each slice of the price is taxed at its own rate.
The bands: 0% up to GBP 125,000; 2% on the GBP 125,001-250,000 slice; 5% on GBP 250,001-925,000; 10% on GBP 925,001-1,500,000; 12% above GBP 1,500,000.
Worked: GBP 300,000 pays 0 + 2,500 + 2,500 = GBP 5,000. GBP 750,000 pays 0 + 2,500 + 25,000 = GBP 27,500. Because only the slice inside each band is taxed, crossing a threshold never retaxes the whole price.
Wales and Scotland set their own rates and their own first-time-buyer relief. Check the band for the nation the property sits in, not the band you remember from a previous purchase.
An online PR1 title search costs about GBP 2 and is the cheapest red-flag filter in the entire purchase.
PR1 costs about GBP 2 online and about GBP 7 by post. It identifies the title and confirms the registered owner before any money moves.
PR2, a full register copy, and PR3, the title document, together add roughly GBP 10-20. The per-title charge is waived on a first registration — which is what happens when you buy the freehold of a new build.
On a freehold purchase the Land Registry application itself is about GBP 20, plus a fee at 0-5% of the price for any title carrying a charge over GBP 500,000. The register entries worth querying before exchange — charges, restrictions, covenants, easements — are covered on the title-search page.
A purchase has windows, not calendar dates — the week-by-week sequence is drawn in the procedure section above.
Each card is one document or payment met between offer and completion.
Each number on this page traces to a published fee scale or tax band rather than to any company's price list.