Buying a new house

[Neilds]

We are looking at buying a house this summer, we have a good deposit, over 10% and we are first time buyers. How much would we expect to pay in the various fees (stamp duty, searches, etc) on a house between £250,000 and £300,000?

Thanks

 

[fundy]

stamp duty will be £2.5k on £250K or £5k on £300K

searches will be in your solicitors fees, these again will to some degree depend on property price but £1500 should cover it (if you want more precise info on solictiors fees send GB72 a message)

 

[Rooter]

When you say 'NEW' house, do you mean a new new house as in a new build? If so, developers might be doing deals, stamp duty, free legal. carpets etc etc.. Worth asking!

I would say that 1500 is on the money ish (also go high!).. Assuming its first time, so you dont have any selling fees. You will need to pay for:

Stamp Duty (as per Fundy)
Land reg fee 130 ish
bank transfer fees 20-30ish
searches 150 ish
solicitor fees 600 ish plus vat

Then any mortgage product fees (which you can add to the mortgage)

Also If you can sneak your deposit up to 15%, you will open a world of better mortgages..

So anyway, 6.5k should cover you on a 300k gaff. Good luck!!

 

[Neilds]

It won't be a brand new house, just new to us.
We could go to 15% deposit but that would mean no money for Mrs S to redecorate, new furniture, etc.
Looks like the £5000 I thought for extras may be a little on the optimistic side☹️

 

[ScienceBoy]

If you use help to buy or a shared ownership scheme and don't pay full stamp duty it would be around 2k.

Ours was just under including mortgage advisiors fee and first months "rent".

I was suprises how little all the fees were in the end.

My advice is always to over budget as once you are in the improvement costs mount up quickly.

Even in a new build I have spent far FAR more on making the house a home than I did on fees.

I would suggest 10-15k for fees, moving, improvement and decorating costs. Assuming you have very little like we did when we moved of rented accommodation.

There are handy calculators online to help if you search for them.

 

[turkish]

if you can like rooter says try and aim for 15% deposit- opens you up for far better terms.

I only bought my house in April and to be frank there was limited and quite poor selection of mortgages for 10% deposits

 

[KhalJimbo]

We are looking at buying a house this summer, we have a good deposit, over 10% and we are first time buyers. How much would we expect to pay in the various fees (stamp duty, searches, etc) on a house between £250,000 and £300,000?

Thanks

Almost all solicitors will give you a free quote. Most of them will guarentee that quote too so you'll never pay more than what is quoted. Piece of advice though, make sure that the solicitors you instruct are on your lenders approved list of solicitors. Our first solicitors wasn't so we had to change halfway through, it delayed things, not by much but it was a hassle finding a new solicitor as we were at the stage of discussing completion dates.

And don't forget the extras like removals etc

 

[ScienceBoy]

if you can like rooter says try and aim for 15% deposit- opens you up for far better terms.

I only bought my house in April and to be frank there was limited and quite poor selection of mortgages for 10% deposits

I agree, we chose a 2 bed over a 3 bed so we had a better mortgage and much more money to do things to the house.

We could have had a an extra bedroom but no money to do anything else with our lives.

 

[Rooter]

I agree, we chose a 2 bed over a 3 bed so we had a better mortgage and much more money to do things to the house.

We could have had a an extra bedroom but no money to do anything else with our lives.

It's chicken vs egg though, have 2 kids and you need to move in 2-3 years. Throwing money away at stamp and fees. Make the tough choice now and be settled and better off in ten years time...

Ps. I am no expert! Just opinion!!

 

[ScienceBoy]

It's totally situation dependant.

I know we did the right thing, yes we might have to move in 5 odd years but the value increase on the house will pay for any losses.

One good thing from our purchase was only £400 stamp duty and fees all under 2k. We can cancel that out easily.

Do your sums, do them again and do them for worst case. Then check to see what is left.

We are in our new house making it a home with a raft of improvements and life improving changes. I certainly would not want to go without these things in exchange for an extra room.

 

[ADB]

Don't forget the surveys -can be anywhere between 250 and 1000 depending on how paranoid you are! If it is an old property, you may want a more thorough inspection done and maybe some follow-up surveys (subsidence, damp etc) so make sure you have this in your budget.

One other thing, don't forget the physical moving costs - if you are doing it yourself van hire and boxes, or using a company can reduce stress but is 100's of pounds.

One thing is for sure - it will always be more than you think!

 

[GB72]

The killer is the stamp duty as the rate on everything over 250000 is higher. The nearer you can get to 250000 the better. Otherwise the figures that rooter quotes are pretty accurate. When you are getting quotes don't just look at the basic figures, look if there is a list of extra charges. Also, if you can, use a local firm not a national conveyancing factory.

 

[Neilds]

Luckily we are past the having kids stage so we won't need to extend in the future. This should be our forever home, until the Mrs decides she wants to move! 😤

 

[londonlewis]

It's chicken vs egg though, have 2 kids and you need to move in 2-3 years. Throwing money away at stamp and fees. Make the tough choice now and be settled and better off in ten years time...

Ps. I am no expert! Just opinion!!

100% agree as this is the situation I am in. We bought a 3 bed 5 years ago. Had a kid and it was still fine. Had another and we are moving.
Now need a 4 bedroom house as we have a lot of family overseas and like the extra room.
Total cost of moving is going to be about £15-18k in total fees.

 

[londonlewis]

It's totally situation dependant.

I know we did the right thing, yes we might have to move in 5 odd years but the value increase on the house will pay for any losses.

Any house you look to buy next will also have increased in value. Unless you look to move to a new area. So the increase you get on your house won't help you out as much as you might think.

 

[londonlewis]

Don't forget the surveys -can be anywhere between 250 and 1000 depending on how paranoid you are! If it is an old property, you may want a more thorough inspection done and maybe some follow-up surveys (subsidence, damp etc) so make sure you have this in your budget.

One other thing, don't forget the physical moving costs - if you are doing it yourself van hire and boxes, or using a company can reduce stress but is 100's of pounds.

One thing is for sure - it will always be more than you think!

The changes to the stamp duty laws have massively brought this cost down though. When it was in bandings previously you just got lumped with a percentage on the value of the whole house. Now it is done in increments.

 

[ScienceBoy]

We spent so little on fees I would be happy to pay again in a few years.

Lesson is so your sums

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

As others have suggested, a slush fund is a good thing to have. There is always something unexpected like your 1st month mortgage being paid up front when you expected it to be paid a month later etc etc.

Good luck :thup:

 

[Rooter]

As others have suggested, a slush fund is a good thing to have. There is always something unexpected like your 1st month mortgage being paid up front when you expected it to be paid a month later etc etc.

Good luck :thup:

And as someone else mentioned i think, even moving costs. We moved our selves, 6 people from a 3 bed to a 4 bed so we had tons of stuff!! I hired a 7.5 ton luton and roped my brother in, it took 4 trips!!

But, van hire and fuel 120, boxes (you dont even think about this!!) but that and tape, bubble wrap cost me about 100 quid!! Have a look on your local facebay, i see a lot of people giving moving boxes away, so worth looking.

Then it costs you a takeaway and beers too to pay your helpers!!

then in the first week, we had to get the oven professionally cleaned as it was gross, the whole house cleaned top to bottom..

Another one to look for, check the inventory list from their solicitor. If its listed, it should work. I didnt notice, but on the kitchen list, the extractor fan box wasnt ticked... i didnt think anything about this, then i tried to turn it on and it was bust. Not a leg to stand on, as it 'wasnt included' in the house. Be ultra anal about everything, check everything, then check again. It was only another 100 quid to fit a new one, but hundred quid is a lots when you seem to have been bleeding money for weeks!!

 

[ScienceBoy]

When you first move in is a good time to make changes to a house. You have no preconceptions of how to use the space. With no budget for work you have to live with it as you get it. Which means changing the way you live to fit the house, rather than changing it to fit you.

On another note, interesting article about Shared Ownweship and the leasehold being sold on to private investors.

I have a 999 year lease on my shared ownership leasehold. Probably not worth selling that on.

The ones that were sold were 150 years. The only reason I can see someone setting it at that level is to profit from it! I would never have accepted our leasehold if it was that cheap or I would have bought it for the £2k they could have had it for.

If they had a slush fund they could have avoided the situation they ended up in now.

Again another reason not to over stretch your purchase to the edge of your means.