On the up - cost of selling rises by as much as £1,000 due to pandemic boom

A property purchasing specialist has revealed how the UK’s home sellers are now paying £793 more in estate agent commission when selling their home, thanks to the pandemic house price boom. 

To come to this conclusion, House Buyer Bureau examined the average fee paid by home sellers across each region of England and how much this cost to sell has increased in comparison to the pre-pandemic market. 

The research found that at the end of December 2019, just prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, the average estate agent was taking home £3,771 in commission. Today, by contrast, the average home seller is now paying £4,564 in estate agent fees, a rise of £793 despite a marginally lower fee of 1.51% now versus 1.52% in December 2019. 

The pandemic-influenced property market boom has caused the average house price in England to grow by 22%, which in turn has fed through to higher agent fees.

It is London, unsurprisingly, where the cost of selling is at its highest, even despite the London market currently struggling in comparison to the rest of the UK. The average fee in the capital of 1.74% equates to £9,130 based on current market values. This is up by £835 when compared to the pre-pandemic market. 

That said, sellers in London have witnessed only the fourth largest increase in what it costs to sell a home, with the cost increasing by nearly a thousand pounds since the beginning of the pandemic in the South East (+£996). Meanwhile, the South West of England (+£960) and East of England (+£906) have also seen big increases.

By contrast, home sellers in the North East have witnessed the smallest increase, with the average cost of selling rising by £440. 

“There are a whole host of costs involved in selling a home, above and beyond the fee paid to your selling agent. However, these tend to be fixed and remain largely unchanged regardless of wider market performance,” Chris Hodgkinson, managing director of House Buyer Bureau, commented.

“The fee charged by a selling agent, on the other hand, changes depending on the value of the home being sold. So while homeowners have enjoyed some pretty high and sustained rates of house price growth during the pandemic, the same increase in the value of their home will cost them a fair bit more if they do decide to sell up.”