Conveyancing Fees UK 2026: Typical Cost £1,200–£2,500 All-In

Typical conveyancing fee ranges in the UK

For a straightforward freehold purchase in England or Wales, the solicitor's base fee ranges from around £800 to £1,800 depending on the firm, location and how the quote is structured. Online or panel conveyancers tend to quote at the lower end; traditional high street firms often charge more but offer more direct access to a named solicitor. Neither model is inherently better — volume and margin structure differ, so checking reviews and turnaround times matters as much as price.

Adding standard disbursements, a typical total legal bill looks like this: under £250,000 purchase — total £1,200 to £1,800; £250,000 to £500,000 — total £1,500 to £2,200; £500,000 to £1,000,000 — total £1,800 to £3,000; over £1,000,000 — total £2,500 and above, often on a percentage or negotiated basis. These are estimates. Your actual quote will depend on the property, region and whether complications arise during the transaction.

If you are simultaneously selling and buying, conveyancing fees apply to each transaction independently, though some firms discount the combined instruction. Budget for both purchase and sale legal fees when working out your total moving costs.

Leasehold, new build and other cost uplift scenarios

Leasehold properties typically cost £200–£500 more to convey than equivalent freehold properties. The additional work involves reviewing the lease (which can run to hundreds of pages), raising enquiries about service charges and ground rent, checking sinking fund adequacy and corresponding with the freeholder or managing agent. If the lease has complications — a short unexpired term, informal variations, or missing deeds of covenant — costs rise further.

New build conveyancing has its own uplift, usually £200–£400 above a comparable resale property. Solicitors dealing with new builds must raise and resolve a large volume of enquiries with the developer's legal team, review building warranties, check the developer's title register for restrictions, and work to developer-driven exchange deadlines which can compress timescales significantly. It is common practice for developers to provide a recommended panel solicitor; you are entitled to use your own, and it is usually advisable to do so.

Shared ownership, Help to Buy equity loan redemptions and properties with complex title issues each carry additional fees. If you are buying with a mortgage, your lender may require you to use its panel solicitor or pay an additional fee for your solicitor to act on the lender's behalf as well as yours (the lender's legal fee, sometimes called the acting-for-lender fee, is typically £150–£250 extra).

How conveyancing fees are calculated

Most conveyancers now quote on a fixed-fee basis, with disbursements listed separately. The fixed fee reflects the expected complexity and time involved. Factors that push the base fee up include: purchase price (higher-value transactions carry more liability), leasehold tenure, new build, help-to-buy, shared ownership, non-standard title, property in a flood zone or near a former industrial site, and gifted deposits which require additional documentation.

Hourly-rate billing is less common for residential conveyancing but still exists at some traditional firms, particularly for high-value or complex transactions. If quoted on this basis, ask for an estimate of total hours and a cap — open-ended hourly billing creates uncertainty in your cash planning. Fixed-fee is always preferable for a standard residential transaction.

The Land Registry registration fee is set by government and scales with purchase price on a stepped basis. As of 2025, it ranges from £20 for properties up to £80,000 to £910 for properties over £1,000,000 (when registering a new title). These fees are not negotiable and are passed through by your solicitor at cost.

What to look for when comparing conveyancing quotes

Always compare quotes on a like-for-like basis, which means looking at the total including disbursements, not just the headline legal fee. A firm quoting £900 plus disbursements may work out more expensive than one quoting £1,300 all-in, depending on how searches and Land Registry fees are itemised. Ask every firm to provide a full quote in writing, broken down into the base fee and each disbursement line.

Check whether the quote is fixed or whether additional charges can be applied. 'Our fee is fixed' does not always mean 'there will be no additional charges' — firms sometimes reserve the right to add an hourly rate for unforeseen complications. Ask specifically: 'Is this quote fixed regardless of complications, or do you charge additionally if the transaction becomes more complex?'

Turnaround time and communication should carry as much weight as price. Slow conveyancing is one of the most common causes of deal collapse in a chain. Check reviews on Trustpilot, Google and the Law Society's Find a Solicitor tool. Ask whether you will have a named solicitor or work with a team. For a leasehold or new build purchase, prior experience with that property type is valuable.

Authorised and regulated conveyancers must be regulated by either the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) if they are solicitors, or by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) if they are licensed conveyancers. Check registration before instructing.

Scotland and Wales — key differences

In Scotland, the conveyancing process is different in material ways. Scottish property law uses an offer-and-acceptance system where solicitors present formal notes of interest and submit offers. The system is generally faster and offers greater certainty at an earlier stage: once formal missives are concluded (the Scottish equivalent of exchange), the transaction is legally binding on both parties. Scottish solicitors routinely act for both buyer and lender. Legal fees for Scottish purchases are broadly comparable to England on a total-cost basis.

In Wales, the process follows the same structure as England — the same searches, the same Land Registry, the same conveyancing timeline — but the transaction tax is Land Transaction Tax (LTT) administered by the Welsh Revenue Authority rather than HMRC. LTT rates differ from SDLT for both residential and non-residential transactions, and first-time buyer relief thresholds also differ. Your solicitor must file the LTT return within 30 days of completion.

For properties close to the Scottish or Welsh border, confirm which jurisdiction applies. Title deeds and the registered title will clarify this, but it is worth raising at the earliest opportunity since it affects both the tax filing and the search providers used.

Conveyancing fees by property price: indicative ranges

Total conveyancing costs scale with purchase price, mainly because the solicitor's base fee and the Land Registry registration fee both increase with property value. Here are indicative total all-in ranges (solicitor fee plus disbursements, England and Wales, freehold, standard purchase): £200,000 property — £1,200 to £1,700; £300,000 property — £1,400 to £2,000; £400,000 property — £1,600 to £2,200; £500,000 property — £1,700 to £2,500; £750,000 property — £2,000 to £3,200.

These figures exclude Stamp Duty Land Tax. They are planning estimates based on 2025/26 conditions and assume a straightforward freehold purchase with no complications. Leasehold properties in each price bracket typically add £200–£500 to the base range. Request itemised quotes from at least three firms before budgeting.

Buying vs selling: different fee structures

Conveyancing fees for buying and for selling are separate charges — you need a solicitor for each transaction and you pay separately for each. Selling conveyancing is generally simpler (and cheaper) than buying: the seller's solicitor drafts the contract, provides title documents and answers buyer enquiries, but does not manage searches or registration. Selling conveyancing fees typically run £600–£1,200 for the base fee, with fewer disbursements than on the purchase side.

If you are selling and buying simultaneously — the most common scenario in England and Wales — many firms offer a combined quote or a discount on the second instruction. When requesting quotes, make clear that you want both transactions costed together so you can compare the combined package fairly. Factor both sets of fees into your total moving-cost plan alongside your deposit, Stamp Duty, survey and lender fees.

Every conveyancing disbursement, itemised

Disbursements are third-party costs your solicitor pays on your behalf and passes straight through to you. They are set by councils, HM Land Registry and search providers rather than by the firm you instruct, so they are the part of a quote you cannot shop around on. What varies between firms is only the professional fee — and whether the quote shows disbursements honestly or leaves them as “to be advised”.

On a standard freehold purchase the itemised list looks like this. The two lines that move the total most are the local authority search (which varies by council more than by firm) and the Land Registry registration fee (which is a stepped scale by purchase price).

England and Wales, 2026/27. The spread in the total reflects the two variable lines: a cheap council search and a low Land Registry band land near £300, while an expensive council search on a £500,000-plus purchase pushes past £700. Additional searches — mining, coal, tin, brine or chancel repair — apply in specific areas and are extra.²

Two practical points. First, disbursements are payable even if the transaction collapses, because the searches have already been carried out — which is exactly the gap a “no completion, no fee” arrangement does not cover. Second, some firms add a handling charge on top of the disbursement amount; ask whether the figures quoted are the raw third-party cost or include a mark-up.

Freehold vs leasehold conveyancing fees compared

A leasehold purchase is materially more work: your solicitor has to read and report on the lease, review the management pack, raise enquiries with the freeholder or managing agent, check the service charge and ground rent history, and serve formal notices after completion. Almost every firm prices that as a leasehold supplement on top of the standard fee, and the managing agent charges separately for its own paperwork.

Leasehold conveyancing adds roughly £200–£500 over the equivalent freehold purchase in England and Wales. A short lease, an absent freeholder or a building needing an EWS1 form can add more, and will also add weeks to the timeline.

New-build purchases sit between the two. The developer's legal pack, the reservation agreement and a fixed exchange deadline (often 28 days) mean more work in less time, and most firms charge a new-build uplift of £200–£500 whether the title is freehold or leasehold.

Do conveyancing costs vary by region? Leeds, Manchester and London compared

Two things drive regional variation, and they pull in different directions. The professional fee tracks local overheads and local property values, so London and the South East sit near the top of the £800–£1,800 range while Yorkshire, the North East, the North West and the Midlands typically sit at the lower end. The disbursements, by contrast, track the council rather than the region — the local authority search is set by each individual authority and ranges from around £80 to over £300 regardless of where that authority sits on a map.

In practice, purchase price does more of the work than geography. Because both the solicitor's fee and the Land Registry registration fee scale with value, a cheaper regional market means a lower legal bill almost automatically. Leeds is a good worked case: typical stock runs from around £180,000 for city-centre apartments to about £380,000 for family homes in Roundhay or Horsforth, and the West Yorkshire average sits near £230,000. At those prices the table above puts total conveyancing at roughly £1,200–£1,700 at £200,000 and £1,400–£2,000 at £300,000 — so a Leeds buyer should be budgeting well under £2,000 all-in for a standard freehold purchase.

Compare that with Greater London, where the county average is closer to £600,000. The same standard freehold purchase moves into the £1,800–£3,000 bracket, mostly because the Land Registry fee jumps to the £500,001–£1,000,000 band and the professional fee sits at the top of the range. Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, both averaging around £250,000, land much closer to the Leeds figures than to the London ones.

County averages are the planning figures used across this site's county pages; the fee column reads across from the price-band table above. Conveyancing is not regulated by postcode — you can instruct a firm anywhere in England and Wales — so treat the regional pattern as a guide to what is normal locally, not a constraint on who you use.

Because you are free to instruct any regulated firm in the jurisdiction, the practical advice for a higher-cost area is simply to widen the quote pool. Get one quote locally and two from elsewhere, then compare all-in totals rather than headline fees.

No completion, no fee: what it actually covers

Most UK firms now advertise “no completion, no fee” or “no sale, no fee”. It means the solicitor waives their professional fee if the transaction does not exchange or complete. Given that a meaningful share of agreed sales fall through, that is genuine protection — but it is narrower than the marketing suggests.

The limitation is disbursements. Searches, Land Registry checks and any third-party costs already paid on your behalf are not refundable once ordered, and searches are usually ordered in the first few weeks. A purchase that collapses in week four therefore typically leaves the buyer liable for £300–£600 of search costs even under a no-fee arrangement.

Before you instruct, get three things in writing: exactly which charges the no-fee promise covers, which disbursements are refundable if the deal dies, and whether anything is payable upfront to start work. Some firms offer abortive-costs (disbursement protection) insurance for a fixed £30–£60 — worth taking on a long chain where fall-through risk is real, and not worth much on a straightforward cash purchase.

Worked example: conveyancing inside your total completion bill

Conveyancing is rarely the largest line on completion day — stamp duty usually is — but it is the line buyers most often forget to budget. Here is how the whole bill assembles at three common prices for a home mover buying a freehold property in England or Northern Ireland.

Stamp duty figures are the 2026/27 standard residential rates calculated by this site's calculator: 0% to £125,000, 2% to £250,000, 5% to £925,000.³ A first-time buyer pays no SDLT at £200,000 or £300,000 and £5,000 at £400,000, which lowers each total accordingly. Scotland and Wales use LBTT and LTT instead.⁴⁵

Two things about that table are worth sitting with. First, at £200,000 the legal and survey costs are larger than the tax — so “budget for stamp duty” is the wrong instruction for a lot of buyers. Second, the mortgage fee line is the one you can most easily change: a fee-free product removes up to £2,000 from completion day, though usually at a slightly higher rate.

If you are selling and buying at the same time, add the selling side too — £600–£1,200 of professional fee plus the estate agent's commission — and ask both firms to quote the pair together.

Use the calculator to include conveyancing in your full home buying budget

Conveyancing fees are one part of the total cash you need before completion. The full picture includes your deposit, Stamp Duty Land Tax (or LBTT in Scotland, LTT in Wales), your mortgage product fee, survey costs and removal costs. Use the free HomeBuyingCosts calculator to add all these components together and see your realistic total upfront cash requirement for any purchase price.

Start with the calculator, then update your conveyancing fee assumption once you have real quotes from two or three firms. This gives you a planning number that is accurate and useful for making an offer with confidence.

Decision framework used by careful buyers

Start with an offer ceiling based on total cash, not headline house price. In practice, buyers who only track deposit and mortgage payments can miss the transaction-cost layer, which is exactly where completions become stressful.

Use a three-pass approach: first estimate tax by nation and buyer type, then add realistic fees, then pressure-test the result by increasing the offer by £10,000 and £25,000. This shows how sensitive your budget is before bidding.

Treat the model as a planning instrument. Final legal liability always sits with official calculators and your conveyancer’s completion statement, but early visibility reduces avoidable surprises.

Practical checklist before making an offer

Confirm your likely buyer status first (home mover, first-time buyer, or additional property). Switching status can alter tax materially at the same price point, so this should be fixed before negotiating.

Collect at least two conveyancing quotes and check what is included. Buyers often compare legal fees without checking disbursements, search packages, leasehold supplements or transfer fees.

Keep a contingency buffer instead of budgeting to the exact minimum. A modest reserve can protect timelines when valuation, legal or lender admin costs move late in the process.

How to compare conveyancing quotes properly

Compare quotes line by line, not headline fee only. Some quotes look cheaper but exclude disbursements or common supplements.

Ask each firm what triggers additional costs and how quickly they communicate updates. Process quality can be as important as upfront price.

Refresh your calculator fees once quote details are confirmed so your all-in planning reflects real numbers.