How much does it cost to sell a house in the UK in 2026?

On a £300,000 sale, total selling costs are typically £4,500–£7,500 with a high-street agent (1.0–1.5% commission + VAT, plus conveyancing, EPC and small extras) or £2,000–£3,500 with an online / fixed-fee agent . Plus Capital Gains Tax if the property is not your main residence.

What's the cheapest way to sell a house?

Using a fixed-fee online agent saves £2,000–£4,000 on a typical sale compared with a high-street percentage-fee agent. The trade-off is you do more of the work yourself — hosting viewings, taking calls, fielding offers. For well-priced properties in active markets it's often genuinely excellent value. For unusual properties or slow markets, a high-street agent's local relationships may still earn their fee.

Do I pay Capital Gains Tax when I sell my house?

Not on your main home. Private Residence Relief exempts your main residence from CGT entirely. You pay CGT only on properties that have not been your main home for some or all of the time you owned them — buy-to-lets, second homes, or homes you inherited and didn't live in. Rates in 2026: 18% basic-rate / 24% higher-rate on the gain, after the £3,000 annual exempt amount. You must report and pay within 60 days of completion .

Can I negotiate estate agent fees?

Yes — almost always. Most high-street agents quote 1.5% as the opening offer; 1.0–1.25% is usually achievable on a well-priced property in an active market. Lever points: agree a shorter sole-agency tie-in (8 weeks rather than 12 or 16), commit to instructing on completion only (not "ready, willing and able"), and get the quote in writing before signing.

What's the difference between sole agency and sole selling rights?

Crucial distinction. Sole agency means one agent has the exclusive right to market the property — but if you find your own buyer privately, you don't pay commission. Sole selling rights means the agent is entitled to commission on any sale during the contract period, even if you find the buyer yourself or even if you withdraw the property from the market. Always check which one is in your contract — sole agency is the normal arrangement.

How long does it take to sell a house in the UK?

From listing to completion, 3–6 months is typical. About 4–8 weeks to find a buyer (heavily market-dependent), then 10–16 weeks of conveyancing. Chains can extend this to 6+ months. Online and fixed-fee agents tend to sell at the same pace as high-street agents on like-for-like properties; the price you list at matters far more than the agent type.

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Cost of selling a house in the UK (2026): every fee, every saving

2026 costs · plain-English

Last updated: 2 June 2026

Selling a UK home in 2026 typically costs £4,500–£7,500 with a high-street estate agent or £2,000–£3,500 with a fixed-fee online agent on a £300,000 property — before any Capital Gains Tax. Estate-agent commission is by far the biggest single line, and the most negotiable.

The selling bill at a glance

Cost	Typical range	Notes
Estate-agent commission (high-street)	£3,000–£5,400	1.0–1.5% + VAT on £300k sale
Estate-agent fee (online / fixed)	£999–£1,999	Paid up front or on completion
Conveyancing (sale side)	£900–£1,800	Inc. VAT; leasehold adds £200–£400
EPC (if you don't already have a valid one)	£35–£120	Required before listing in England, Wales, NI
Mortgage exit / discharge fee	£50–£300	One-off, on your existing loan
Early repayment charge	1–5% of balance	Only if exiting a fixed deal early — often avoidable by porting
Removals	£400–£1,500	If you're moving to another property
End-of-tenancy / move-out cleaning	£150–£400	If letting back to landlord or vacating between sale and purchase
Land Registry office copies	£6	Your conveyancer will include
Capital Gains Tax	0% (main home) / 18–24% (others)	Reportable within 60 days of completion

Estate-agent fees — the biggest line

Two completely different pricing models compete for your instruction. The choice can swing your total selling cost by £2,000–£4,000.

High-street percentage fee

Traditional agents charge a percentage of the agreed sale price plus VAT. Typical 2026 headline ranges:

Sole agency: 1.0–1.5% + VAT
Joint sole agency (two firms working together): 1.5–2.0% + VAT
Multi-agency (any agent can sell, winner takes commission): 2.0–3.0% + VAT

What you actually pay on £300,000: £3,600 (1.0%), £4,500 (1.25%), £5,400 (1.5%) — all including VAT at 20%. Most fees are payable on completion under a "no sale, no fee" model.

Online / fixed-fee agents

Online agents (Yopa, Strike/Purplebricks, 99home and others) charge a flat fee regardless of sale price. Typical 2026 packages:

Basic listing (Rightmove, photos, floor plan): £799–£1,200
Standard (adds hosted viewings, premium listing): £1,200–£1,599
Premium (includes professional photography, sale negotiation, "for sale" board): £1,599–£1,999

On a £300,000 property, the saving versus a 1.25% high-street agent (£4,500) is £2,500–£3,500. The trade-off is that you typically host viewings yourself and field offers via an app — work you'd want to enjoy doing, or at least not mind.

Which to choose

A reasonable rule of thumb:

Well-priced property in an active market (will sell in < 8 weeks): online fixed-fee almost always wins on cost without losing much on outcome.
Unusual property, slow market, or property requiring expert negotiation (development potential, listed building, large estate): the right high-street agent's local relationships and skill can justify their fee.
You don't want to do viewings yourself: some online agents offer hosted viewings as an add-on (£300–£600) which can still be cheaper than high-street.

Conveyancing for sellers

The legal work of transferring ownership to the buyer. The seller's solicitor drafts the contract pack, replies to enquiries from the buyer's solicitor, and handles repayment of your existing mortgage. Typical 2026 cost: £900–£1,800 including VAT.

Leasehold sellers add £200–£400 for the freeholder's / managing agent's "leasehold management pack" — a set of administrative information your buyer's solicitor will require. There's nothing you can do to avoid it; budget it in.

→ Read the full conveyancing costs guide

EPC (Energy Performance Certificate)

You legally cannot market a property to let or to sell in England, Wales or Northern Ireland without a valid EPC. Cost: £35–£120, valid 10 years. If your property had one in the last decade, check the EPC register first — you may not need a new one.

Scotland includes the EPC in the seller-paid Home Report (£500–£900 total). You don't pay for it separately.

Mortgage costs you'll forget

Exit / discharge fee on your current loan: £50–£300. Paid to the lender for closing out the mortgage. Look up your specific figure in your original mortgage offer documents.
Early repayment charge if you're exiting a fixed deal before the end of the fixed period: typically 1–5% of the outstanding balance. On a £200k mortgage with a 2% ERC, that's £4,000.

Both can often be avoided by porting your existing mortgage to the new property if you're buying again at the same time. Ask your broker before you instruct.

Capital Gains Tax — usually zero, sometimes huge

For most movers, this is the easy bit: your main home is fully exempt under Private Residence Relief. You owe nothing to HMRC on the gain.

You do owe CGT if the property has not been your main home for some or all of the time you owned it. Most common cases:

Buy-to-let or holiday-let properties
Inherited property you didn't live in
A second home (holiday cottage, pied-à-terre)
A property where you lived for some of the ownership period but not all (you get partial relief)

2026 rates on residential property: 18% for basic-rate taxpayers (or for the portion of the gain falling within the basic-rate band), 24% for higher-rate. The first £3,000 of gains across all your assets in a year is tax-free (annual exempt amount). You must report the gain and pay any tax due within 60 days of completion using HMRC's Capital Gains Tax service. Penalties for late filing apply even if no tax is due.

If you think you may owe CGT, get an accountant involved before you complete — there are legitimate reliefs (lettings relief, periods of "deemed occupation") that can reduce the bill significantly and are easy to miss.

The extras agents sell you

Most are optional. Some are worth it; some are pure margin.

Professional photography upgrade (£100–£300): worth it if your home shows well. Good photos materially affect online interest.
Premium portal listing (Rightmove "Featured" or "Premium": £50–£200): marginal in a hot market, useful in a slow one. Ask the agent for portal-specific click data before paying.
Drone / aerial photography (£100–£200): genuinely effective for rural, large or unusual properties; pointless for terraced houses.
Premium "For Sale" board (£30–£50): low cost, doesn't move the needle.
Walk-through / virtual tour (£100–£200): nice-to-have for higher-value property; often a tie-breaker for distance buyers.

Tied-in services to watch for

Estate agents commonly earn referral commission for steering you toward their preferred conveyancer, mortgage broker or surveyor. You're free to ignore the referral — and you'll usually save money doing so. Specifically:

"Recommended" conveyancer: agent typically earns £150–£300 commission. You can almost always find equivalent quality cheaper by getting three independent quotes.
"In-house" mortgage broker: usually fine, but compare with an independent broker before signing. Some products are available only via independents.
"Bundled" survey or EPC: rarely competitive. Get the EPC done independently (£35–£120 vs £100+ via agent).

How to negotiate the commission

Get three valuations before signing with any agent. Even if you have a favourite, the competing offers give you negotiating leverage.
Ask for 1.0% as your opening number if quoted 1.5%. Most agents will meet you somewhere in the middle.
Trade a shorter tie-in for a lower fee — agree to 8-week sole agency rather than 12 or 16 weeks, with a 2-week notice period after that.
Make it sole agency, not sole selling rights. The latter entitles the agent to commission even if you find your own buyer.
Confirm "no sale, no fee" in writing. Make sure the contract triggers the fee on completion only — not on a "ready, willing and able" buyer being introduced (a clause that means you owe the commission even if you withdraw or the buyer pulls out).
Get the all-in fee in writing including VAT and any premium-listing or photography add-ons. The headline percentage is only part of the story.

How to save money overall

Use a fixed-fee online agent if your property is well-priced and your local market is active. £2,000+ saved on a typical sale.
Use an online conveyancer. £200–£500 cheaper than a high-street firm for the same legal outcome on a standard sale.
Port your mortgage rather than redeem, to avoid exit and early-repayment charges.
Decline tied-in services from your agent in favour of independently sourced quotes.
Get your EPC done independently if you need a new one.
Use your CGT annual exempt amount strategically if you have multiple chargeable disposals in a year — speak to an accountant about timing.

An alternative: cash buyers for fast or distressed sales

The standard sale process above optimises for getting the best price — at the cost of time and certainty. For a meaningful minority of sellers, that trade-off doesn't work: an inheritance to settle, a divorce to finalise, a property in poor condition that won't show well, a slow local market, or a relocation that can't wait.

Cash-buyer firms are an alternative route. They purchase the property directly — no estate agent, no chain, no marketing — and typically pay around 80–85% of market value in exchange for speed and certainty. The discount is real and it isn't trivial: on a £300,000 home you'd typically receive £255,000–£270,000 rather than trying to sell at £300,000. But there are no estate-agent fees, the buyer usually covers your conveyancing, and completion can happen in 2–4 weeks rather than 3–6 months.

Right fit for:

Probate executors needing to settle an estate quickly
Owners going through divorce or separation
Anyone facing repossession or financial distress
Landlords exiting buy-to-lets with sitting tenants or short leases
Homes in poor condition that won't pass a survey easily
Slow local markets where similar properties sit on portals for months

Not right for anyone who has the time to wait for a market sale. The discount is the trade-off, not a trick — but if you don't actually need the speed, you're leaving money on the table.

Selling in Scotland — the Home Report system

Scotland has a fundamentally different process. The seller commissions a Home Report before marketing, containing a single chartered-surveyor survey + valuation, an Energy Performance Certificate and a Property Questionnaire. Cost falls on the seller: typically £500–£900. The Home Report is shared with all interested buyers, who therefore rarely need to commission their own survey.

Estate-agent commissions in Scotland tend to run slightly higher (1.0–2.0% + VAT), and most Scottish sales go through a "fixed price" or "offers over" system, not the asking-price model used in the rest of the UK.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to sell a house in the UK in 2026?: On a £300,000 sale, total selling costs are typically £4,500–£7,500 with a high-street agent (1.0–1.5% commission + VAT, plus conveyancing, EPC and small extras) or £2,000–£3,500 with an online / fixed-fee agent. Plus Capital Gains Tax if the property is not your main residence.
What's the cheapest way to sell a house?: Using a fixed-fee online agent saves £2,000–£4,000 on a typical sale compared with a high-street percentage-fee agent. The trade-off is you do more of the work yourself — hosting viewings, taking calls, fielding offers. For well-priced properties in active markets it's often genuinely excellent value. For unusual properties or slow markets, a high-street agent's local relationships may still earn their fee.
Do I pay Capital Gains Tax when I sell my house?: Not on your main home. Private Residence Relief exempts your main residence from CGT entirely. You pay CGT only on properties that have not been your main home for some or all of the time you owned them — buy-to-lets, second homes, or homes you inherited and didn't live in. Rates in 2026: 18% basic-rate / 24% higher-rate on the gain, after the £3,000 annual exempt amount. You must report and pay within 60 days of completion.
Can I negotiate estate agent fees?: Yes — almost always. Most high-street agents quote 1.5% as the opening offer; 1.0–1.25% is usually achievable on a well-priced property in an active market. Lever points: agree a shorter sole-agency tie-in (8 weeks rather than 12 or 16), commit to instructing on completion only (not "ready, willing and able"), and get the quote in writing before signing.
What's the difference between sole agency and sole selling rights?: Crucial distinction. Sole agency means one agent has the exclusive right to market the property — but if you find your own buyer privately, you don't pay commission. Sole selling rights means the agent is entitled to commission on any sale during the contract period, even if you find the buyer yourself or even if you withdraw the property from the market. Always check which one is in your contract — sole agency is the normal arrangement.
How long does it take to sell a house in the UK?: From listing to completion, 3–6 months is typical. About 4–8 weeks to find a buyer (heavily market-dependent), then 10–16 weeks of conveyancing. Chains can extend this to 6+ months. Online and fixed-fee agents tend to sell at the same pace as high-street agents on like-for-like properties; the price you list at matters far more than the agent type.

Sources & further reading

HMRC — Capital Gains Tax when you sell property: gov.uk/tax-sell-property
HMRC — Capital Gains Tax service (60-day reporting): gov.uk/report-and-pay-your-capital-gains-tax
EPC register (find an existing certificate): gov.uk/find-energy-certificate
The Property Ombudsman code of practice for residential estate agents: tpos.co.uk
Scotland Home Report — Scottish Government: gov.scot
Our companion guides: cost of moving home · conveyancing costs · house survey costs

This guide is general information, not financial or legal advice. Selling costs vary by property, region and firm; always get written quotes before instructing. Capital Gains Tax positions can be complex — consult an accountant if you think you may owe. Figures reflect typical 2026 UK market ranges.