To be depressed about how much it costs to move house now

[Pavementworrier]

Purchase tax alone where I live is about £30k on a very ordinary bungalow. Then there are all the random compulsory extra costs (an energy report which always concludes that you'd get a better rating if you used energy saving lightbulbs... Even though you already do because aren't they the only ones available now?)

I want to move house and I've found a lovely place but scared to do it because if it turns out not to be manageable I can't just move again I'll be stuck for years.

Stupid modern world.

Your not wrong. Absolutely everything we do now incurs some sort of fee. Unless you are mega wealthy and can pay accountants to help you dodge tax.

I agree with you. And the heart wrenching kicker? I only moved 5 months ago and I need to move again, this house is ridiculously hard to heat and there's not much I can do about it unless I spend 50k on insulation. Unsurprisingly I don't have that lying around.

Edit - the new house was similar to my previous house as in single brick, so assumed it would be similar to heat. Apparently the orientation also affects it as my previous was westerly facing so got more sun.

Agree with you op. We really want to move areas but all the costs of moving, esp stamp tax mean we need to stay put until the kids leave home and we can downsize.

This is one of my fears! Plus DH health not great so if he (or both!) of us had to stop work we'd have to sell up and what if we couldn't.

The council tax band is completely insane too (literally the same as some castles on Rightmove... Two bed ordinary house!!)

I’m in London and to upgrade to a slightly bigger family house will attract a £100k+ tax bill.

It makes the decision to do so huge, as if you decide to move again… you’ll be paying it again…!

Still only buys you a 3/4 bed terrace or semi here.

Stamp duty costs, renovations etc make the idea of climbing the ladder for young people pretty redundant now.

I want to move in the next 5 years & that will cost me a chunk, I won’t move again unless to downsize.

Tbf there are plenty of places even in London with terraces & semis for much less than 1.6m

Sure, I live in one currently.

But to buy a bigger one, the prices are high. It’s not an atypical price for a ‘family size home’ in many quite ordinary parts of London.

If I were to move it would be to upgrade my property, ‘move up the property ladder’ - and that attracts a really huge tax bill now.

It stops people moving.

I agree it stops people moving but I just don’t agree 1.6m is the typical price of a terrace in ordinary parts of London.

I agree we moved 9 months ago into our forever house. New build and we are grateful every single day as our two older properties were become ridiculous in terms of upkeep. We have paid a shedload and as you will know if you have purchased a new build paid a premium for everything stamp duty, new furniture, the garden outside is a mud bath and we paid to redo the fence and all sorts. We have loads left, garage conversion, loft ladder, more loft insulation, outside lights, solar panels (more), landscape back garden and about another £75K-£100K to get it how we want but …..
it is low bills - really low energy and huge but warm and cosy and in a new community. Luckily we have ones, trees with TPOs, farmer fields and brooks and yet a 15 minute walk from town centre and 15 minutes on bus to nearest city. If DH and I ever fall out we are not moving ever ever ever. One floor each and one communal floor with different time zones!

Wow😱….I’m NW …we have a lovely 3 bed 1870s semi with big garden and drive but I’m 60 now so downsizing….and buying a doer upper 1960s 3 bed bungalow for 240 ….so £2400 for our stamp duty and I thought that was extortionate

What puts me off a new build is the fees they often charge for communal spaces because the council won't adopt new ones. Is that ok for yours?

Never move to Scotland is my advice - everyone earns less but pays more

Stamp duty is double in Scotland. I’m looking to buy a 3 bed semi in a decent school catchment in Edinburgh. Budget £850k, stamp duty is £62k. Why tax people for moving house, when moving house means people live somewhere suitable for their current needs? Scrap stamp duty and increase annual property taxes on everyone instead.

just buying or renting a house in general is depressingly expensive meanwhile my 60 year old aunt has lived in council homes her whole life upsizing or downsizing when required for free and her current rent is a quarter of what it’s worth 🙄and she still moans

Scrap stamp duty and increase annual property taxes on everyone instead.

They should do this but the issue is the intergenerational inequality we have with housing. Older voters won’t go for it.

We really want more space and moving would be ideal, but we can’t afford the house style we’d like. We were looking at extending but I still wouldn’t get the layout I’d like. It’s tough at the moment, and only seems to get worse.

Stamp duty for most people is nothing like 100k, its 4.5k on the average house price of 290k.

In London the average 'duty is 18k.

If you can afford a £1.6m house, you can afford 100k, its more likely you don't want to pay it.

Those living in London have the lowest disposable income of all. To earn enough for the mortgage these people will be heavily taxed. And won’t get any free childcare or any other benefit. And the reason why they earn so much is because they are based in London, but London jobs = London sky high housing. I bet those in London would bite your hand off for an averagely priced property.

Yeah the answer is to move to England ATM which is really annoying

We have a five-bed roomed house and are keen to downsize but the cost of doing so will exceed 50k. I have calculated stamp duty, estate agents commission, solicitors, VAT on fees and that’s before things like the fridge doesn’t fit and needing to replace it.

I understand the government see stamp duty as a good money spinner for them but I wonder whether for some people it actually stops people moving rather than encouraging people into smaller houses and freeing up larger ones?

I find it hard to sympathise for someone ready to drop £1.6M on a house that they can't pay £100K in tax when then we have children living in poverty, the NHS is on its knees.

Surely you want to live in a functioning society?

Also for everyone saying they 'would move if it wasn't for stamp duty'... You know lowering stamp duty just puts up prices? People have a budget for their house and some of that is carved off in taxes. If everyone all at the same time no longer pays stamp duty, all it does is give them more money to offer on houses and then house prices go up.

You can't suddenly buy a nicer house as everyone whose also wanting to buy that house also suddenly has the extra money in their pocket.

Nevertheless it has a trickle down effect. If they can’t afford the £100K tax bill to move to a slightly bigger house, then their smaller house won’t be available for someone else to buy.

That's not quite how it works, there's a finite supply of houses. If they can't afford that house and spend less money it means there's less people going for the £1.6M house and more likely it will sell for under £1.6M rather than over.

The house will still be sold and therefore one house and one house buyer will be out of the house buying market but the house price will have been cheaper, this will then mean when other houses are valued locally they are also priced lower. So the effect on the wider market is lower, not higher prices.