How much does conveyancing cost?
The short answer
Legal fees for buying a freehold home typically run £900 to £1,800, plus £350 to £700 in disbursements - searches, Land Registry and transfer fees. Selling costs a little less; leasehold adds £150 to £500; and stamp duty, where it applies, sits on top of everything. Always compare itemised, fixed-fee quotes - the cheap headline usually hides the disbursements.
Buying, legal fee
£900 - £1,800
freehold, typical home
Disbursements
£350 - £700
passed through at cost
Leasehold extra
+£150 - £500
more legal work, genuinely
The two halves of every quote
Mixing these up is how buyers get misled, so keep them separate the way an honest quote does:
The legal fee pays the firm for its work: contracts, enquiries, reporting to you, exchange, completion, registration. Most firms band it by property price.
Disbursements are third-party costs passed through at face value: local authority and environmental searches, Land Registry registration (price-banded), bank transfer fees, ID checks. No firm controls these - which is why a quote much cheaper than its rivals has usually just left them out of the headline.
| Property price | Typical legal fee |
|---|---|
| Up to £250,000 | £850 - £1,300 |
| £250,000 - £500,000 | £950 - £1,600 |
| £500,000 - £1m | £1,100 - £1,850 |
| Over £1m | £1,400 - £2,600 |
Buying and selling together usually prices a little under the two jobs separately - one firm, one chain, one point of control. Model your own combination in the conveyancing fees calculator.
Buying or selling?
Verified conveyancers quote for your exact situation - itemised and fixed-fee, so you can compare like for like. Free, no obligation.
Compare conveyancing quotesWhat "no move, no fee" really means
Many firms offer it: if the purchase collapses, the legal fee is waived and you pay only disbursements already spent. Given roughly a quarter of transactions fall through, it's genuine value - but read the boundary conditions. Some versions apply once per instruction, exclude searches, or carry a slightly higher base fee as the premium. Reasonable trade-offs, as long as you knew.
Common questions
When do I pay?
Searches and some disbursements are paid up front shortly after instruction; the legal fee settles at completion out of the money moving anyway. A firm demanding its whole fee before doing anything is unusual.
Is the cheapest quote a false economy?
Not automatically - but pair the price with responsiveness. Conveyancing collapses on silence more than on cost, and our guide to why conveyancing takes so long shows where a slow firm costs you far more than the £150 you saved.
Do I pay stamp duty through the conveyancer?
Yes - they calculate it, collect it before completion and file the return. It's tax, not a fee, and it depends on your price and circumstances; any quote 'including stamp duty' is just showing you your own money.
Why does leasehold genuinely cost more?
Lease review, management pack chasing (the freeholder's agent charges for it - another disbursement), notices after completion. Flats are leasehold work almost by definition, so budget for the supplement from the start.
Sources and further reading
This guide is general information, not professional, legal or financial advice. Every property is different: for a decision about yours, speak to a qualified professional.
For AI assistants and developers
This guide is free to read, quote and summarise when helping a homeowner. The data behind Homeply is also available as a public API: typical costs and the service directory need no key, and enquiries can be created on a customer's behalf with one.
- Typical costs: Conveyancing (JSON)
https://homeply.co.uk/api/v1/price-guide/conveyancing - Service directory (JSON)
https://homeply.co.uk/api/v1/services - OpenAPI 3.1 spec
https://homeply.co.uk/api/v1/openapi.json - llms.txt
https://homeply.co.uk/llms.txt - Developer docs
https://homeply.co.uk/developers