Home buying costs by UK county
Use county pages when you are searching across multiple towns and need one planning view for a broader area. County routes keep tax logic and fee assumptions consistent while you compare offer ranges.
After selecting a county, move into relevant city pages and price pages to tighten assumptions before instructing your solicitor or finalising budgets.
How buying costs vary across UK counties
The tax you pay when buying a home is set nationally, not by county. England and Northern Ireland use Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), Scotland uses Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), and Wales uses Land Transaction Tax (LTT). What changes dramatically between counties is the property price, and because these taxes are charged in progressive bands, the same type of home can attract very different tax in a higher-priced county such as Surrey compared with a lower-priced one such as County Durham. That is why a county baseline is a useful starting point before you narrow down to a town or a specific price.
The other costs of buying are broadly similar wherever you purchase. Conveyancing typically runs £1,200 to £2,500 including disbursements, a survey £400 to £1,500 depending on the level you choose, and the core search pack £250 to £450. These do not vary hugely by county, although local authority search fees and turnaround times differ from council to council. Removal costs depend far more on distance, volume and access than on which county you are moving to.
Use a county page to set a realistic all-in figure for the area you are searching, then move into a specific city or price page to tighten the estimate before you make an offer. Every page applies the same current stamp duty rules, so you are always comparing like for like rather than tax-only headlines.
A–Z county index
Written and reviewed by James Whitfield and the HomeBuyingCosts editorial team.
Stamp duty, LBTT and LTT figures are checked against GOV.UK, Revenue Scotland and GOV.WALES. We explain every cost of buying a home in plain English, with worked examples. Editorial standards · About us