Latest research of 100 residential conveyancing firms reveals that average fees for house sales have increased from £899.79 to £1,090.32 since early 2021.
Research conducted by Property Solvers, a quick sale and auctioneer company, reveals that legal practices in England and Wales had increased with average residential conveyancing fees for a freehold tenured property purchase and sale in early 2022 standing at £1,090.32 and £1,092.89 respectively. This represents increases of 21.17% for home sales and 19.92% for purchases since 2021.
Average conveyancing costs for a leasehold property sale also grew by 18.64% (from £907.95 in 2021 to £1,077.20 in 2022) and by 15.83% for leasehold property purchases (from £842.30 in 2021 to £975.66 in 2022).
Remortgaging costs (based on a secured loan of £315,000) saw the lowest average cost rise of 7.27% (from £565.40 in 2021 to £606.51 in 2022). According to Property Solvers, leasehold supplementary costs tend to lie at between £100 and £250.
Managing Director of Convey Law, Lloyd Davies commented:
“Common sense would suggest that when conveyancing firms get busy, their focus is always to try and bring in the most profitable and best paid work, often at the expense of the less well paid.
Increase in demand in terms of transaction volumes and the lack of conveyancing expertise to undertake the work has allowed both conveyancers and introducers of business to revise their legal fee scales upwards over the course of the last 18 months.
Hopefully, the increase in fees will equate to top quality conveyancing and excellent service levels – which is what all good conveyancers try to achieve.”
Ruban Selvanayagam of Property Solvers commented:
“It comes as little surprise that conveyancers / conveyancing solicitors have been increasing fees in line with rising inflationary pressures across most service-led sectors alongside sustained demand from the home sales market at large over the last year.
Conveyancing fees, compared with estate agency costs, tend to have more disparities relative to the firm’s location and reputation. For instance, there were several leasehold purchase quotes ranging from as low as £588 right up to the £2,000+ range. We also came across a remortgage conveyancing fee at £246 and as high as £1,434 (inclusive of VAT).
However, we would generally advise steering clear of quotes that seem too cheap as your case may well be one of a huge pile that the conveyancing firm is dealing with. This could jeapordise the successful completion of the transaction.”
