Conveyancing costs

snowqueen555

I've gained a few quotes from several firms, and the average cost is around £2500 for a newbuild flat purchase. It seems most places add on around £500 for new builds as they involve a lot more work.

Has anyone else had similar quotes? The cheapest I'm getting for a standard flat is around £2000. I'm guessing I just need to bite the bullet.

I am in the South West by the way.

alri08

Yes I had similar quotes, am in the southeast.

Bigphil1474

We've been quoted £1,800 for a 4 bed semi (not new) and we're up in Yorkshire. Your quotes don't sound outlandish.

Tiglet2

Quotes will be based on how much work the solicitor thinks your case will be, so they have a guide of fees and then a guide for anything "additional" which might be needed during the course of the transaction.

For example:

A freehold purchase will be less work than a leasehold purchase, therefore fees will be lower for the freehold.

A leasehold purchase on an established title will be less work than on a new build leasehold purchase.

There will be more fees to register a new title at Land Registry than registering a new owner on an already registered title.

On all purchases, there will be fees added for dealing with a lender.  If you are not obtaining a mortgage, then you would save on these fees.

On a leasehold purchase, there will be additional fees for dealing with the freeholder and/or developer and/or management company.  On a freehold purchase (without management company), there won't be these fees.

If you are being gifted any money as a deposit, there will be additional fees for dealing with the giftor and liaising with the lender regarding this gifted deposit.  If you don't have a gifted deposit, you won't pay any additional fees.

If you are buying with the help of a LISA, ISA or any Help to Buy agency, there will be additional fees for dealing with the agent of these schemes.  If you are not buying with the aid of these, you won't be paying any additional fees,

Bear in mind in the future when selling a property (not on a purchase), you will be paying your Estate Agent fees which will be in excess of any solicitor fees (typically 1% of the sale price), so in my opinion the fees paid to the solicitor for doing all the legal work is worth every penny. 

Just make sure you don't choose a factory-based volume conveyancing firm based on their "cheaper" quote.  You get what you pay for.

BagelLuvver

I'm in the southeast and recently quoted £1675 for conveyancing but there were a lot of extra costs too like £500 for document searches.