New research has revealed that the average cost of moving home in the UK has risen to £11,000.
According to Lloyds Bank, the cost of moving house has gone up by £870 in the past year.
The reasons for the increase in costs include rising estate agency, stamp duty and conveyancing fees.
Higher estate agency fees account for more than half of the increase in average moving costs, which have risen by £4,023 (8%) to £5,404 in 2016.
Average stamp duty costs have increased by £372 (17%) to £2,504 and legal costs are up by £93 (8%) to an average of £1,251.
The figure differs widely across the regions, with Greater London seeing the average cost of moving increasing by £4,732.
This is more than five times the national increase and largely due to prices in the capital rising by 14.5% over the past year compared to the UK average of 8.5%.
The average moving cost in London is £31,416 and the average homemover in the capital pays more than £15,000 in stamp duty and £11,000 in estate agency fees.
Mike Songer, mortgage director at Lloyds Bank, said: “The cost of stepping up the housing ladder has continued to rise sharply over the past year. As a result, the cost of completing a home move in the UK has grown significantly over the past decade, to nearly £11,000.
“This trend is especially marked for buyers in London and the South East with the combination of both higher property prices and more rapid increase in prices in recent years resulting in significantly higher moving costs in these parts of the country.”
The South East is the second most expensive region for moving, with an average outlay of £20,210 – a rise of £3,382 (20%) since last year. At the other end of the spectrum, there has been virtually no change in Wales and only very small rises in the North West (1%) and Scotland (2%).
Northern Ireland has the lowest moving costs, at £5,401 (18% of local annual average earnings), whilst moving costs are between £6,900 and £8,000 in Yorkshire and the Humber, the North East, Scotland, the North West and Wales.
Over the past 10 years the annual cost of moving increased by 25% to £10,996 – in line with house price growth over the decade.
However, average gross annual full time earnings have increased by only 17% over the same period, pushing the total cost of moving up even further.
London has seen the highest rise in the cost of moving over the last decade, with a £12,680 (68%) increase from £18,736 to £31,416. This rise is substantially higher than in any other region with a £4,329 increase in the South East being the next highest. Moving costs have increased as a proportion of annual gross earnings in the capital from 46% in 2006 to 72% in 2016.
In sharp contrast, moving costs in Northern Ireland have fallen by £1,957 (27%) from £7,358 in 2006 to £5,401 in 2016 due to the dramatic decline in house prices in the country following the onset of the financial crisis in 2007. Moving costs in the North East and Wales are also slightly lower than a decade ago.
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