How much does conveyancing cost?
The 2026 numbers, explained.

The short answer

For a typical freehold purchase in England and Wales in 2026, expect £850–£1,500 in legal fees (plus VAT) and £350–£700 in disbursements — the third-party costs your conveyancer pays out on your behalf. Selling is usually a little cheaper, and a remortgage cheaper still. Leasehold adds several hundred pounds to almost any transaction.

Those are market-wide ranges. The number that matters is a fixed quote priced on your actual property and circumstances — which is free to get and takes about a minute.

Legal fees vs disbursements: the two halves of every quote

Every conveyancing bill splits into two parts, and understanding the split is the single best defence against a misleading quote.

• The legal fee is what the solicitor or licensed conveyancer charges for their work: checking the title, raising enquiries, reporting to you, exchanging contracts and completing. It attracts VAT at 20%.
• Disbursements are costs paid to third parties — search providers, HM Land Registry, banks. They're broadly the same whoever you instruct, so a firm can't really compete on them; they can only hide them.

Typical legal fees by property price

Most firms price by value band, because higher-value properties carry more risk and more lender requirements. As a guide to the fixed legal fees we see quoted through the panel:

Disbursements when you're buying

These are the third-party costs that sit on top of the legal fee for a purchase:

• Search pack — £250–£450. The local authority search, drainage & water search and environmental search. Some councils turn these around in days; a few still take weeks, which is worth asking about if you're in a hurry.
• HM Land Registry registration fee — £20–£500. Set by a statutory scale based on price (see the table below).
• Bank transfer (CHAPS) fee — £20–£45. Charged per same-day transfer, typically once for sending completion funds.
• ID and anti-money-laundering checks — £10–£30 per person.
• Bankruptcy and priority searches — under £10. Small statutory searches made just before completion.

One more item goes through your solicitor's account but isn't a conveyancing cost at all: Stamp Duty Land Tax. It dwarfs everything above on most purchases, and the bands change with government policy — use the official gov.uk SDLT guidance for your own numbers.

The extras that catch people out

Supplements are legitimate — some transactions genuinely are more work — but they belong in the quote up front, not in the completion statement. The common ones:

• Leasehold supplement — £150–£400 on the legal fee, because the lease itself has to be reviewed. On top, the freeholder or managing agent charges a management pack fee of £200–£500 when selling, and buyers often face notice fees of £50–£300 set by the lease after completion.
• New-build supplement — £150–£350. Developer contracts, planning conditions and infrastructure agreements mean more checking.
• Help to Buy ISA / Lifetime ISA — £50–£100 per scheme for the conveyancer's part in claiming the bonus.
• Gifted deposit — £50–£150 for verifying the source of funds and advising the giver.
• Shared ownership, right to buy, unregistered land — each adds work and typically £100–£300.

When you compare quotes through Conveyancing Index, the form asks about tenure, new-build status and your deposit before pricing — so the fixed fees you see already include the supplements that apply to you.

Selling and remortgaging

Selling is legally lighter: no searches, no registration. Budget the legal fee (usually £100–£200 below the buying fee for the same band) plus small costs for official copies of your title — a few pounds per document — and the management pack if the property is leasehold.

Remortgaging usually runs £300–£700 all-in. Many lenders offer "free legals" with their own panel firm; that's genuinely free but you join their queue — paying for your own conveyancer buys speed and someone acting for you rather than the bank.

How to compare quotes without getting burned

• Compare totals, not headline fees — legal fee + VAT + disbursements + supplements for your circumstances.
• Insist on fixed, not estimated. A fixed quote can only change if the transaction itself changes.
• Ask about no-move-no-fee. Roughly a third of UK transactions fall through; this clause means the legal fee is waived if yours does.
• Check regulation. Anyone doing this work should be regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority or the Council for Licensed Conveyancers. Every firm on this panel is, and is insured, credit-checked and monitored.
• Weigh responsiveness, not just price. A £150 saving is poor value if the file sits untouched for a fortnight at a time. Review scores tell you more than the fee line does.

Quick answers