How much does house buying cost?

[GreenGill]

Ok please imagine I know zero about house buying.
I will be a first time buyer and I'm stressing about how much the 'extras' will cost.
We've almost saved up a deposit and starting to think about looking for our ideal house but people keep telling me there's surveyors and estate agents and solicitors fees etc.
Is it really so expensive, how much should I be setting aside for all this? 😬
Thanks!

Solicitors approx 700
That sounds suspiciously cheap imo.
Mine was 1600 and 700 was covered by mortgage cashback

For a 100k house or ftb you won't pay stamp duty (think there is a limit on house value but sure it's prettty high.) our solicitor cost £750.
Mortgage advisor was £150 but that was for a broker. Some mortgage companies charge an arrangement fee (£500-1500)but you can usually add this to mortgage if needs be. Van hire can be as little as £50 if you do it all in one day.

Not sure about survey fee on new builds... but ours was £350. You shouldn't need more than basic on new build I wouldn't think

My sister got her survey free as part of her mortgage deal

As a pp said, remember insurance; I believe buildings insurance is a stipulation of most mortgages and you can often get buildings and contents together so that probably 100-200. Think our survey was around 800 but we had a full one as it was an older house, you can get a more basic one for about 400. Solicitor was around 1300 I think, we used a local one and they were really good. I think some of those online solicitors can be not great so not always good to get the cheapest but I could be wrong. No stamp duty for FTBs. Moving was about 90 as we packed ourselves, just needed the guy to drive the van and help us load/unload. So maybe you need around 3000?

The mortage company I believe does some kind of basic survey but I think they basically drive by and see if the house is standing so it doesn't prove much! That's for them not you, to make sure the asset is there and as described I guess.

Stamp duty: www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/everything-you-need-to-know-about-stamp-duty

Solicitor's fees £1000

Removal costs: under £1000 for me

Broker's Fees: up to £500

Other costs: £0-£2000 (if you've been renting you'll probably need to buy a washing machine & fridge and there might well be other bits of furniture or essential work to your new house)

I agree you'll need house insurance - I tended to include that in my calculations for monthly bills as it's something you'll obviously be paying long term - rather than the one off costs of actually moving in.

If I remember right we paid around £1600 for solicitors (although there are cheaper options, we went with recommendation rather than price), £295 for broker although you can have ones with no fee, £365 for the survey, another £150 ish for additional survey we needed following our survey raising issues.
For moving we hired a van to do it ourselves as we had just over a month to move in coming from a rented place. No memory on how much that cost but you can easily find that out.

I would imagine you need about £2000 for it all if you go with no fee broker and find a cheaper solicitor.

If you are buying Shared Ownership, some of the general advice may not apply in exactly the same way.

You have to be accepted onto the Shared Ownership scheme first.
This means your income and savings must be low enough that you can't afford to buy on the open market, but high enough to be able to afford the mortgage. You might have to meet other criteria like having a local connection or being in a "key worker" job.

Your purchase is likely to be the leasehold, which means that the Shared Ownership company has the freehold. They will own the building, you will own the right to live there.

You may well pay for buildings insurance within your annual/ monthly service charge so only need to buy contents insurance for your belongings.

You won't need a survey for yourself as the Shared Ownership company will own the building, but your mortgage company might require one.

The valuation may be done by a charted surveyor and the sale price is fixed, unlike an ordinary sale where the seller markets at a price based on an estate agent estimate that you can make an offer on.

Check that your mortgage company will lend on your Shared Ownership scheme. Check also that your Solicitor/ Conveyancer will do this work as it involves 3 parties - seller, Shared Ownership company and you. This may then incur additional costs as you are paying for their time.

Stamp duty is a tax levied on the total value of the house. So if your £100,000 is e.g. a 50% share of a house worth £200,000 then that would attract Stamp duty. However, if everyone buying is a first-time buyer you would be exempt.

Check what arrangements there are for staircasing (buying more shares), e.g. what multiples, how soon, what maximum, how many times. The more you buy, the less rent you pay, buy more mortgage if you don't use savings. Is there a certain percentage where you no longer pay rent (mine is 75%). If you reach 100% will you own the freehold?

Check also what the arrangements are for selling. The property may have to be offered back to the Shared Ownership company for a period of time before you can sell on the open market, which would delay an onward purchase, or you may have to pay the whole year's service charge for instance.

Expect the whole purchase to take longer than for an equivalent house purchase. The Shared Ownership company does not have the incentive of a private seller to get on and move fast. You may need to chase.
Buy plenty of wine!

Consider also any 'unexpected' costs that may crop up once you've moved in.

When I moved in (unbeknown to me) my upstairs bathroom was leaking through the floorboards into the kitchen below. Long story short but I needed a whole new upstairs bathroom and electrics done in the kitchen. Then my downstairs toilet needed a plumber and my garden fence blew down and it turns out it was so rotten that it had to be totally replaced.

Maybe I was really unlucky but that was another £6.5k all in all that is not factored in, all within 3 months of moving in.

Ring round and get solicitors' quotes, letting them know you're doing it. Depending on where you are in the country there may be special searches for example mining searches are common in areas where there were a lot of mines.

For this house, the stamp duty was £5k, solicitor fees £1k, didn't bother with a survey and no mortgage needed do can't advise on that cost.