Home-buying process: steps to buying a new house or flat in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

This timeline applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland. If you’re in Scotland, read our guide Buying property in Scotland – a money timeline.

Before you start house-hunting, it’s a good idea to work out what you can afford to spend on buying a house or a flat and your monthly mortgage payments.

It’s never too early for you to start thinking about applying for a mortgage as it can be time-consuming.

You can get a mortgage from an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA), mortgage broker or lender.

Once you’ve found a mortgage product you like, if accepted you’ll get a  mortgage ‘in principle’.

This tells you how much money the lender is likely to offer and the interest rate you’ll pay.

You might have to pay a booking fee to reserve the mortgage product you want. Typical cost: £99-£250

Before you apply for a mortgage, check your credit report for any errors and to get an idea of your score.

Lenders will look at it when considering your application.

Once you’ve found a home you want to buy, the next step is to make an offer, usually through an estate agent.

You only pay for an estate agent if you’re selling property.

The fees usually range from 0.5% to 3%, plus VAT, of the selling price.

The surveyor will value the property and check for problems, which might affect the cost of the home.

The solicitor or conveyancer will handle the legal work around the property. They will tell you how much you can expect to pay and might ask for a deposit upfront – this is usually 10% of their fee. Typical cost: £500-£1,500 + 20% VAT.

Your solicitor or conveyancer submits searches to the local council to check whether there are any planning or local issues that might affect the property’s value. Typical cost: £250-£300.

This survey is done by the lender to make sure the property is worth the price you’re paying before they approve the mortgage.

It's not an extensive survey and will not identify all the repairs or maintenance that might be needed.

Typical cost: £250-£1,500, depending on the value of property.

Some lenders might not charge you for this, depending on the type of mortgage product you select.

There are several types of survey available:

• RICS condition report – basic ‘traffic light’ survey and the cheapest. It’s most suitable for new-build and conventional homes in good condition. No advice or valuation is provided in this survey. Cost: £300.
• RICS homebuyer report – suitable for conventional properties in reasonable condition. This is a much more detailed survey, looking thoroughly inside and outside a property. It also includes a valuation. Typical cost: £400+.
• Building or structural survey - the most comprehensive survey and suitable for all residential properties. It’s particularly good for older homes or homes that might need repairs. Typical cost: £600+.

Once the survey is complete you might want to go back and renegotiate the price of your new home.

There are two reasons for this:

• your survey might uncover problems with the property that will be expensive to fix. You can use this information to ask for a reduction in price
• the lender might value the property at a lower price, leaving you with a shortfall. This means you won’t be able to match the asking price or what you originally intended to offer.

It’s this stage in the process that is often most stressful. Delays and problems can happen for reasons including:

• your mortgage application being rejected
• the seller withdrawing the property from the market
• the seller accepting a higher offer from another buyer (known as ‘gazumping’).

When problems happen, it’s worth making the effort to stay in touch with the seller via your solicitor and estate agent.

It’s often possible to rescue the situation by keeping the lines of communication open.

If everything has gone according to plan, contact your lender or mortgage adviser to proceed.

There’s often a fee, usually called an arrangement fee, to set up the mortgage.

This can be added to your mortgage, but if you choose this option, bear in mind you’ll pay interest on it for the life of the mortgage. Typical cost: £0-£2,000.

After you’ve received a binding mortgage offer, your mortgage lender must give you at least seven days to think about whether or not this is the right mortgage for you.

You can use this time to compare this offer with other mortgages.

If you’re sure that this is the right mortgage for you, you can let the lender know in less than seven days that you want to go ahead.

It's better to pull out rather than risk buying a property that might cost you more than you can afford in the long run.

If you decide not to buy, you can pull out and cancel your mortgage application before you have exchanged contracts.

But you might lose some of your money depending on how far you’ve gone in the process.

If there are no problems or delays, then you should receive the contract to sign and complete the sale.

Before signing the contract, go through it with your solicitor to check that all the details are correct.

Make sure you’re happy with what the sellers have agreed to leave in the property and that all your queries have been answered.

At this stage, you and the seller are committed to the sale.

The seller might also ask you to pay a holding deposit – typically £500-£1000 to show intent.

Once you’ve exchanged contracts, you’ll need buildings insurance in place to cover the structure of the property.

• The remaining money owed to buy the property is now transferred from your solicitor’s account to the seller’s solicitor’s account. There will be a telegraphic transfer fee. Typical cost: £25-£50.
• You might also have to pay a mortgage account fee. The lender charges this fee for setting up, maintaining and closing down your mortgage account. It’s often added to the mortgage, which means you’ll pay interest on it, so consider paying it up front instead. Typical cost: £100-£300.
• You’ll now need to pay your solicitor’s bill (minus the deposit and local searches if you’ve already paid them). Typical cost: £500-£1,500 plus 20% VAT.
• Your solicitor will register the transfer of ownership with the Land Registry for properties in England and Wales. In Northern Ireland, it needs to be registered with Land and Property Services.
• Sellers will need to pay their estate agent on completion. The fee is agreed at the outset and is typically a percentage of the sale price, usually 1% to 3% plus 20% VAT. Buyers don’t have any estate agent fees.
• Buyers of residential homes have 14 days from the completion date to file the Stamp Duty Land Tax Return and pay any tax due in England and Northern Ireland. Your solicitor will usually arrange this for you. In Wales, you will need to pay Land Transaction Tax.

If you’re using a removal company, moving on a weekday is cheaper. Typical cost: £300-£600+.