Subscribe Feed (RSS)As the going gets tough, the Land Registry increases all fees
July 7th, 2009 by Karelia | Filed under Property Market News.News from a London Buyers Agent
Last year everyone was talking about estate agents going down, this year we heard our own competitors, Garringtons went into administration and now it seems the Land Registry is also in trouble. Property transactions have dropped by 43% year on year so the Land Registry workload has reduced leaving the government department with an ‘unsustainable reduction in fee income’. If only Buyers Agents could put up prices when the going gets tough - but I digress.
Although all fees are increasing, the cost of registering properties is going up by approximately 30% so the registration cost for a property worth £1 million will increase from £420 to £550. Charges for providing information has increased from £3 for the title plan or title deeds to £4 each, but I suspect that this will mostly hit professionals including solicitors and Buyers Agents such as us. Although its annoying, the increase amounts to a small proportion of the total costs of moving house. In the UK, costs amount to tens of thousands of pounds, including the survey, legal costs and stamp duty which is 4% of the property purchase for residential property worth over £500,000. Lets just hope the Chancellor doesn’t follow the Land Registry’s lead!
The costs went up on Monday.
Tags: Buyers Agent, fees, Land Registry, London Buyer's Agents
