Agents charge average 1.2% but highest hits 2.9% says comparison website

Some estate agents are charging as much as 2.9 per cent commission according to a survey by comparison website GetAgent.

While the average across the UK is a more modest 1.2 per cent, GetAgent says the highest percentage fees are not to be found in London as one might have expected, but in part of Scotland. 

GetAgent has looked at fees per postcode and says the single highest, 2.9 per cent, is found in East Ayrshire; however on average the house price in this location is only £89,729, so the commission equates to just £2,646.

Two postcodes in Thanet are also home to an average fee of 2.4 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively, while an area in north east Lincolnshire is the next highest at 2.1 per cent. 

Postcodes in London, Middlesbrough and Liverpool hit precisely 2.0 per cent.

At 0.6 per cent, various areas of Scotland have the lowest average fee in the UK. 

“A mixture of competition from online and hybrid agencies and a Brexit-inspired market slowdown has seen many traditional agents lower the levels of commission they are charging UK homeowners in order to remain competitive” says GetAgent chief executive Colby Short.

“Of course, the actual money paid is all relative to the area and the price at which you sell … the difference is quite drastic and even between the largest fees paid in the capital compared to those outside of it, there is a gulf of some £20,000.”