Conveyancing Cost in 2026: Fees, Extras and Real Examples
Reviewed by the team of licensed conveyancers, updated 10 November 2026.
The short answer: conveyancing costs around £1,479 to buy a home and £887 to sell one in England and Wales, including VAT and disbursements. If you’re doing both at once, the average is £2,365. Those are Q3 2026 averages from more than 77,000 quotes on Reallymoving, reported by Property Industry Eye on 6 November 2026. Your own figure will move with the property’s price, whether it’s leasehold, and how complicated the deal turns out to be. Stamp Duty sits on top of all of that, and for most buyers it’s the bigger number.
That’s the headline. But you probably didn’t come here for an average. You came because you’ve got an offer accepted (or you’re close), a quote or two in your inbox, and a nagging feeling that the number on the first line isn’t the number you’ll actually pay. That feeling is usually right. So let’s go through what conveyancing really costs, line by line, with worked examples you can hold your own quote up against.
Average conveyancing costs in 2026
Conveyancing fees have been getting cheaper this year, not dearer. Here’s the latest really moving data, which includes VAT and disbursements:
| Transaction | Q2 2026 average | Q3 2026 average |
|---|---|---|
| Buying a home | £1,509 | £1,479 |
| Selling a home | £929 | £887 |
| Buying and selling together | £2,438 | £2,365 |
| Buying and selling in London | Not reported | £2,975 |
The combined figure fell 3.5% on a year earlier, or 6.5% once you allow for inflation. Nine of the 12 UK regions got cheaper over the quarter. These are averages of quotes, not final bills, so treat them as a sense check rather than a price list.
For remortgaging, the Home Owners Alliance puts the average cost at around £300 (guide updated 4 November 2026). A product transfer with your current lender usually needs no conveyancing at all.
What makes up the cost of conveyancing?
Every conveyancing quote is built from the same four parts. Once you can see them separately, comparing quotes gets a lot less confusing.
- The legal fee. What the firm charges for its own work, from checking the title to registering you as the owner. Most firms now fix this.
- VAT. Charged at 20% on the legal fee and on some admin items. Most disbursements don’t carry VAT, but a few (like some ID check and management pack charges) can.
- Disbursements. Money your conveyancer pays to other people on your behalf: search providers, HM Land Registry, ID check services, and banks. These should be broadly similar wherever you go.
- Supplements. Extra charges for extra work, such as a leasehold flat, a new build or a gifted deposit.
Here’s the thing people miss. The legal fee is the only part that really varies between firms. So when one quote is hundreds of pounds cheaper, check whether a disbursement has gone missing or a supplement is hiding further down the page. If you want the full checklist, our guide to choosing the right conveyancer covers what to ask before you sign.
Conveyancing costs when buying a house
Buying costs more than selling because the buyer’s conveyancer does more of the checking. They order the searches, review the title, report to your lender, pay your Stamp Duty and register you at HM Land Registry. Most of the disbursements land on the buyer’s side too.
| Buyer’s disbursement | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Search pack (local authority, water and drainage, environmental) | £250 to £450 |
| HM Land Registry registration fee | £20 to £500 online, depending on price (see below) |
| Anti-money laundering and ID checks | £6 to £20 per person |
| Property fraud check | About £10 |
| Bankruptcy search | A few pounds per buyer |
| Bank transfer (CHAPS) fee | Varies by firm, so ask |
Search and ID figures are from the HomeOwners Alliance. If you’re wondering whether the searches are worth the money, they are. Our guide to why property searches matter shows the kind of problems they turn up.
How the Land Registry fee changes with the price
The HM Land Registry fee is the one disbursement that’s tied to what you pay for the home. Your conveyancer usually applies online, which is cheaper. These are the current Scale 1 fees on GOV.UK:
| Purchase price | Online (whole title) | Online (part title or new lease) | By post |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to £80,000 | £20 | £45 | £45 |
| £80,001 to £100,000 | £40 | £95 | £95 |
| £100,001 to £200,000 | £100 | £230 | £230 |
| £200,001 to £500,000 | £150 | £330 | £330 |
| £500,001 to £1 million | £295 | £655 | £655 |
| Over £1 million | £500 | £1,105 | £1,105 |
One thing to watch: new builds and some new leases are registered as a “part title”, which roughly doubles the fee. And HM Land Registry is consulting on restructuring its fees until 22 December 2026, so these numbers could change in 2027.
Conveyancing costs when selling a house
Selling is cheaper. The seller’s conveyancer proves you own the property, prepares the contract pack, answers the buyer’s questions and pays off your mortgage on completion. The Q3 2026 average sale quote was £887.
Your disbursements are usually small: copies of the title from HM Land Registry (about £7 each), ID checks and a bank transfer fee. The cost that catches sellers out is the leasehold management pack. If you’re selling a flat, the freeholder or managing agent charges for it, and the Homeowners Alliance puts that anywhere from £300 to £800. Your conveyancer doesn’t set that price, but it often appears on their quote, so it’s worth asking about early.
See how we handle the legal side of a sale on our conveyancing for sellers page.
Buying and selling at the same time
Most home movers are doing both, which is why the combined figure (£2,365 on average in Q3 2026) is the one to look at. Using one firm for both sides usually costs less than two separate quotes added together, and it means one team is managing both ends of your chain.
That second part matters more than the saving, honestly. When your sale and purchase sit with different firms, every date has to be agreed twice. With one firm, the person who knows your buyer is ready can also tell your seller.
Remortgage and transfer of equity costs
A remortgage is usually the cheapest conveyancing job, at around £300 on average. Nobody changes hands, so there are no searches in most cases. The work is paying off your old lender and registering the new one.
HM Land Registry charges for this on its Scale 2, which is based on the amount you’re borrowing, not the value of the home. A £200,000 remortgage is £30 if your conveyancer applies online. There’s no fee to remove the old mortgage.
A transfer of equity (adding or removing someone from the title, often after a marriage or separation) also uses Scale 2, but it can involve your lender’s consent and Stamp Duty if there’s a mortgage being taken on. It’s worth a proper quote. Read more about remortgage conveyancing and transfer of equity.
What pushes conveyancing costs up?
A fixed fee is fixed for the job described in the quote. When the job turns out to be bigger, supplements kick in. Here are the usual ones, with average add-on costs (updated October 2026):
| Situation | Average supplement | Why it costs more |
|---|---|---|
| Leasehold property | About £323 | The lease, service charges and management pack all need checking |
| Notice of transfer or charge | About £275 each | Notices to the freeholder, common on flats |
| New build | About £522 | Developer deadlines, plans and warranties to check |
| Shared ownership | About £378 | A housing association lease and its rules |
| Gifted deposit | About £140 | Extra source-of-funds checks your lender insists on |
Other things can add cost too: unregistered land, title defects, more than two buyers, or an auction purchase with a tight deadline. None of these are unfair on their own. What’s unfair is finding out about them halfway through. A good quote lists the supplements that could apply to your property before you instruct anyone.
Buying a flat? Leasehold rules are shifting in stages, and lease length can affect both cost and mortgage options. If the lease is getting short, our lease extension conveyancers can explain what extending would involve.
Stamp Duty: the biggest cost that isn’t a conveyancing fee
Stamp Duty Land Tax goes to HMRC, not your conveyancer. But your conveyancer works it out, files the return and pays it for you, so it often appears on the same completion statement. The return and payment are due within 14 days of completion.
These are the current rates for England and Northern Ireland, checked on 10 November 2026. The Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026 left them unchanged.
| Portion of the price | Standard rate | First-time buyer rate |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £125,000 | 0% | 0% |
| £125,001 to £250,000 | 2% | 0% |
| £250,001 to £300,000 | 5% | 0% |
| £300,001 to £500,000 | 5% | 5% |
| £500,001 to £925,000 | 5% | No relief over £500,000 |
| £925,001 to £1.5 million | 10% | No relief |
| Over £1.5 million | 12% | No relief |
If you already own another home, you’ll usually pay 5% on top of every band. Non-UK residents usually pay a further 2%. Wales and Scotland have their own taxes, so this table doesn’t apply there.
Worked examples: what a move might cost in total
These examples use the Q3 2026 averages above and the official Stamp Duty and Land Registry rates. They’re illustrations to help you sense-check a quote. They’re not Chapter Law prices, and your own figure will depend on your property.
| Scenario | Average conveyancing (incl. VAT and disbursements) | Stamp Duty | Rough total |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-time buyer, £240,000 freehold house | £1,479 | £0 | About £1,479 |
| First-time buyer, £350,000 home | £1,479 | £2,500 | About £3,979 |
| Home mover selling and buying at £300,000 | £2,365 | £5,000 | About £7,365 |
| Buy-to-let or second home at £200,000 | £1,479 | £11,500 | About £12,979 |
Look at how the Stamp Duty column dwarfs the legal one. It’s why chasing a quote that’s £100 cheaper rarely changes your total much, while a first-time buyer relief claim or a careful look at the price band can change it by thousands. Add a leasehold supplement and a management pack if you’re buying a flat, and remember the averages above already include typical searches and Land Registry fees.
When do you pay conveyancing fees?
You don’t pay it all at once. Most firms ask for money on account near the start, usually to cover the searches and ID checks. The HomeOwners Alliance says this is typically £250 to £500. The legal fee and the remaining disbursements are then taken from the completion funds or paid just before completion, and you’ll get a completion statement showing every figure.
If the move falls through, what you owe depends on your terms. Some firms charge for work done so far. Others offer no sale, no fee conveyancing, which usually waives the legal fee. Money already spent on searches has gone to third parties, so that part normally isn’t refunded.
Why the cheapest quote isn’t always the cheapest move
I’ll be blunt about this one. A cheap quote that takes four days to answer an email can cost you far more than it saves. Delays lose chains. Lost chains mean fresh searches, a second survey, maybe a new mortgage valuation. Suddenly that £150 saving looks expensive.
So when you compare quotes, compare three things side by side:
- the total for your type of property, including likely supplements and VAT
- who will actually handle your file, and how you’ll reach them
- what happens if the move falls through
The SRA’s price transparency rules require solicitor firms to publish what a conveyancing price includes and which disbursements are likely. Whoever regulates your conveyancer, you’re entitled to ask for that same breakdown in writing. And if speed is the worry, our guide on how long conveyancing takes shows where the time usually goes, while common conveyancing problems covers the delays you can head off.
Conveyancing costs in Birmingham and the West Midlands
If you’re moving in the West Midlands, the timing is on your side. The region saw the biggest fall in conveyancing quotes in Q3 2026, down 9.3% on the previous quarter according to the Reallymoving figures. London, at £2,975 for a combined sale and purchase, is still the most expensive part of the UK.
A local conveyancer isn’t required, since most of the work happens online now. But it can help with local quirks. Parts of the West Midlands sit on old coalfields, for example, so a mining search may be needed on top of the standard pack. A conveyancer who deals with the area every week will know when that’s likely.
How Chapter Law prices conveyancing
Chapter Law is a conveyancing firm based in Longbridge, Birmingham, acting for buyers and sellers across England. Our licensed conveyancers, backed by qualified solicitors, work on a fixed fee, with no legal fee to pay if your move doesn’t go ahead. You’ll get a named case manager and can track your case online.
When you ask us for a price, you’ll see the legal fee, VAT, each disbursement and any supplements that could apply set out separately, before you commit to anything. No surprises halfway through. Get your free conveyancing estimate, or find out more about conveyancing for buyers.
Conveyancing cost FAQs
Is conveyancing a percentage of the house price?
Usually not. Most firms charge a fixed legal fee, sometimes in price bands. The HM Land Registry fee and Stamp Duty do rise with the price, which is why a more expensive home still costs more to buy overall.
Do you pay VAT on conveyancing fees?
Yes, at 20% on the legal fee and on some admin items. Most disbursements, like searches and Land Registry fees, don’t carry VAT. Always check whether a quote shows prices with or without VAT.
Who pays for conveyancing, the buyer or the seller?
Each side pays its own conveyancer. The buyer pays for the searches, the Land Registry fee and any Stamp Duty, which is why buying costs more than selling.
Is the cheapest conveyancing quote a good idea?
Not always. Compare the full total for your property type and ask who’ll handle your file. A slow conveyancer can cost you a chain, which wipes out a small saving.
Can a fixed conveyancing fee go up?
Yes, if the work turns out to be different from what the quote assumed, such as a property that’s leasehold rather than freehold, or a gifted deposit added later. A good quote states those assumptions in writing.
This guide is general information about conveyancing costs in England and Wales, not legal advice for your situation. Figures checked 10 November 2026.