How much actual cash will I need to move house?

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I bought my first house 20 years ago and am hoping to move within the next year or two. I’ve no idea how much actual cash I need to have available to do this, what has to be paid for up front that can’t be added to the mortgage. Can anyone advise?

I seem to recall that when I bought last time the only actual cash I had to have was the deposit and solicitor fees - maybe? But I’ve seen people saying they have lost thousands on surveys which suggested that’s a cash spend up front.

I won’t need removers, I’ll do that myself as I have a van.

I’m overpaying my mortgage as much as I can to make remortgaging easier so saving is going to be really tricky - I’m single, self employed and my fixed rate comes up in May 2024 so my priority is needing as small a loan as possible.

My house desk value currently £275k and I’ll be moving to the same value in a different area. LTV currently 30%

Any help gratefully received!

We spent around £6k all in on fees I think.

Fees, survey on new house, stamp duty

If you are selling and buying then I would budget £5k estate agent fees, £5k in total solicitor fees for both transactions, stamp duty on £275k is £1250 and then say £750 for the survey. So a total of about £12k. It’s an expensive business moving house!

Bloody hell. Thanks @Karmatime for that detail and thanks @MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel for what I’m going to hold as an optimistic level!

Estate agent fees, solicitors and stamp duty won't need to be paid till you've completed in your sale. Upfront costs will be survey, local searches.

Average level 2 survey is about £400-500, or £900 for L3. Run of the mill average conveyancers cost circa £1600. Prices from May. N West England. Got at least 3 quotes for each.

Stamp duty would normally be part of your mortgage borrowing so not an upfront cost!

Yeah, stamp duty is on top of the £6k I paid. Surveys paid upfront everything else was taken out of equity by solicitor

Will you be able to get all the contents of the house in the van - remember you will only have access to one property at a time. Empty old house hand in keys, there is usually a wait to get new house keys and then empty contents. Very common mistake people make thinking they can do runs backwards and forwards.

Hi all - thanks! @Lonecatwithkitten - yes, I will. Mates have vans too, I’m covered.

@FlutteryButterfly thats good to know thank you!!

@titchy thanks. They’re still cash costs tho, yes? I can’t absorb into mortgage borrowing?

@KievLoverTwo love your name, love a Kiev! I’m in SE (south central but same ££ I reckon) I guess it will maybe be more here.

@MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel I’m not sure I’m understanding this right - are you saying the only cash costs you paid were surveys and everything else - solicitor and estate agent fees, stamp duty, searches - came from equity?

Yes, upfront we paid the survey fees and the moving van. All other fees (which solicitor dealt with) was taken out the equity by our solicitor before they transferred the remaining equity to my bank acct.

I have had some really bad kievs this year. It's made me sad. Had to chuck one in the bin on Friday 😭

Tbh, because it's so slow, you should be able to get conveyancers and surveyors to knock money off. I had one surveyors email me a 10% off code for five weeks until I hit unsubscribe, another agreed to knock £100 off from a one line email from me when I said they were pricier than others (and I happened to have used them before). Conveyancers workloads have dropped so much that the average transaction is now taking 115 days instead of five months. So, barter.

Also, idk if it's considered cash for your transaction but isn't the first month's mortgage payment sometimes almost double, depending on when the funds are released to the conveyencer versus the date of your first payment? I think it's the interest they charge for, but it really adds up.

Yes, seconding this. We were caught out with this a few years back, when there was an access problem at our new place, ended up storing our stuff in a friend’s cellar for a few weeks, but on our most recent move it worked because we were coming from a rental. If you’re coming from a rental you can have overlap with the contract end into your purchased property, makes everything a lot easier and you don’t have to have a same day entry for sale property and onward purchase. We sold our home quicker than we thought and hadn’t found anywhere, so moved into rental to keep the sale going through- you might want to add in a line for rental deposits just in case you end up in this situation, especially if your current house is in a high demand area.

Maybe add some storage costs to your ‘upfront’ budget, as this might be something you end up doing before you get into new property.

Oh that makes a huge difference @MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel !! So if I’m saving to move that means I’m just looking at say £400-£900 for survey and fuel for vans - that’s one heck of a difference from £12k. I could do the former today but the latter would take ages to get to. Thank you so much!!

@KievLoverTwo sad times on the Kiev losses. I’m veggie and have tried a lot of bad ones! Thanks for the tip on month one, that’s worth knowing. And I’d no idea I’d be able to haggle on those fees so that’s really helpful, thanks.

@NeedToThinkOfOne thanks. No chance I’m renting, there isn’t and won’t be the cash for that. If it comes to that I’ll camp with family and mates have warehouses/ storage units - I’m 100% covered for removals and storage.

Yeah, I think upfront we probably needed about £1200 but it was staggered. So £350 one month, £400 another month etc. We had saved £6k expecting more upfront but it was much less.

You can reduce your deposit by the amount you need for stamp duty etc though so effectively adding those costs to what you need to borrow.

@MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel i am wishing MN had a ‘like’ button because I like your post a lot - you’ve genuinely made my day!

and @titchy thanks for that too, this has trainees out far better than I was thinking possible!

That’s not usual in my experience - I’ve always paid the stamp duty out of funds available up front . Stamp duty is high enough as it is, without borrowing money and paying interest to make it even more expensive, especially now mortgage rates are 6%+ !!

We’re in the process of moving now.

We’ve had to pay:
£350 to solicitors for draft contract and searches
£400 survey
£500 mortgage application fee

That leaves to pay out of the equity after completion:
£2100 solicitors fees
£1800 estate agents fees

Oh and £600 stamp duty!

That’s not usual in my experience - I’ve always paid the stamp duty out of funds available up front . Stamp duty is high enough as it is, without borrowing money and paying interest to make it even more expensive, especially now mortgage rates are 6%+ !!

It works out the same either way though doesn't it. The £x you have saved you used for stamp duty rather than reducing the mortgage.

Survey fees: 300, Solicitors Fees: 1575, Survey: 450, Asbestos survey: 190, Mortgage broker fees: 395, Some ID check fees: 90, no stamp duty since FTB, yet to move hence no movement fees as of yet.

@Tryingtokeepgoing , I've moved 5 times (England) and never paid stamp duty upfront. All part of my mortgage borrowing. I think this is normal!

@FlutteryButterfly I am very pleased to hear that, thank you!