How Much Do Estate Agents Charge to Sell a House? The Fee, the VAT and What Comes Off Your Tax

Most sellers pay their estate agent 1.3% to 1.42% of the sale price, including VAT. On a £300,000 house, that is roughly £3,900 to £4,260. The quoted range runs much wider. You can be charged anything from 0.75% plus VAT at the cheap end to 3% plus VAT for multi-agency. What you sign matters more than what the average says.

The rate you are quoted is not the rate you pay, and the gap has three causes: the agency model, the VAT, and what sits outside the percentage.

At a glance

• Typical fee: 1.3% to 1.42% of your sale price including VAT, on sole agency with a high street agent.
• On a £300,000 sale: about £3,900 to £4,260 of commission at that rate.
• Full quoted range: 0.75% to 3% plus VAT, driven by the model you pick and how hard you push.
• Multi-agency: 3% to 3.6% including VAT, because the winning agent shares one bigger fee.
• Ask for: 1% plus VAT, which is 1.2% including VAT, if one agent gets your sole agency.
• VAT: added on top unless your quote says otherwise, so ask which version you are looking at.
• Comes off the gain: the commission is deductible if the house was ever let, or it is not your only home.

How much do estate agents charge to sell a house?

Three guides sellers actually read publish three different averages. The spread helps you more than an average of averages would.

• The HomeOwners Alliance guide "Estate Agent Fees, And How You Can Save In 2026" puts the average at 1.42% including VAT, in a range of 0.9% to 3.6%. No sample size is published, so read it as that guide's stated figure rather than as survey data.
• Which?, updated 8 June 2026, cites Rightmove 2025 data showing the average seller paid roughly 1.3%, including VAT, in a range "from less than 1% to as much as 3.5%".
• MoneySavingExpert, updated 1 July 2026, gives high street agents "between 0.75% and 3%" of your sale price plus VAT. On a £300,000 property that "ranges from £2,700 to £10,800".

So your honest headline is 1.3% to 1.42% including VAT, sitting inside a quoted range of 0.75% to 3% plus VAT. If a high street agent quotes you above 1.8% for sole agency, ask what you get for the difference. There is no legal cap on commission in England and Wales, so nothing but your negotiation holds the number down.

What that is in pounds at three sale prices

The rates below are the three sources above. The cash column is what each one comes to on a £300,000 sale.

Fee model	Typical rate	Cash on a £300,000 sale
Sole agency, high street	1.2% to 1.8% including VAT (HomeOwners Alliance)	£3,600 to £5,400
Multi-agency	3% to 3.6% including VAT (HomeOwners Alliance)	£9,000 to £10,800
High street, full quoted spread	0.75% to 3% plus VAT (MoneySavingExpert)	£2,700 to £10,800
Fixed fee, online	A set price agreed up front, not a percentage	See the online agent guide below
What most sellers actually pay	1.3% to 1.42% including VAT	£3,900 to £4,260

Scale that central rate and you get the shape of your bill. At £200,000 you are looking at about £2,600 to £2,840. At £450,000 it is about £5,850 to £6,390. The percentage barely moves as your price rises, which is why a higher value house gives you more room to negotiate. The agent's work does not double when your house is worth twice as much.

Is VAT on top of the fee you are quoted?

Usually yes, and it is the easiest way to misread a quote by a four figure sum. Agents tend to quote the rate before VAT. The guides tend to publish it after VAT. MoneySavingExpert's own arithmetic shows the gap. On a £300,000 property, 0.75% to 3% plus VAT is £2,700 to £10,800, not £2,250 to £9,000.

One question fixes this for good. Ask each agent for the fee as a pound figure, including VAT, on a realistic sale price rather than an optimistic asking price. Write the three answers side by side. That is the only comparison that is like for like.

What does the commission actually buy, and what is charged on top?

Your percentage should buy the valuation, photography, a floorplan, portal listings, a board, accompanied viewings, feedback, offer negotiation, and sales progression through to completion. Sales progression varies most between agents, and it is what stops your chain collapsing, so interrogate it.

Plenty can sit outside the percentage. Watch for a premium portal listing, upgraded photography or video, an EPC if you do not hold a valid one, a fixed marketing charge, and a withdrawal fee on some contracts. If your agent refers you to a conveyancer or a broker, ask what they are paid for it. The consumer rules require the material information about your deal, including the total price, to be given to you rather than left out.

Sole agency, sole selling rights or multi-agency: what does each cost and tie you to?

The regulations prescribe a form of words for each of these terms, and the explanation has to sit in your contract itself. That wording is where your money is.

Sole agency makes you liable where contracts are exchanged "with a purchaser introduced by us during the period of our sole agency or with whom we had negotiations about the property during that period". It also catches "a purchaser introduced by another agent during that period". This is the normal high street deal, at 1.2% to 1.8% including VAT.

Sole selling rights goes further, and the difference is one clause. You are liable "even if the purchaser was not found by us but by another agent or by any other person, including yourself". Find your own buyer and you still pay. Push back on it, or price it. It should cost you less than sole agency, not the same.

Multi-agency puts several agents on your instruction, and only the winner gets paid. That is why the rate roughly doubles, to 3% to 3.6% including VAT. On a £300,000 sale you pay £9,000 to £10,800, against £3,600 to £5,400 for sole agency. It can earn its keep on a difficult property. On an easy one it is expensive insurance.

Watch the ready, willing and able purchaser clause wherever you see it. The prescribed explanation says your fee "must be paid even if you subsequently withdraw and unconditional contracts for sale are not exchanged, irrespective of your reasons". Tie-in and notice periods are the other half of this decision. Our guide to estate agent contract tie-in periods covers them in full.

What must the agent tell you about the fee before you sign?

Before you enter the contract, your agent has to tell you three things.

• When the fee becomes payable.
• How much it is, or how it is worked out if the amount is not yet known.
• The amount, or an estimate, of any extra payments that are not part of the commission.

That third limb is the one agents forget, and it is the one that catches marketing packages and premium listings. Get it in writing.

If you were never told, the agreement is not enforceable against you except by order of the court. The court can dismiss the agent's application. It can also reduce or discharge what you owe, to compensate you for the prejudice you suffered. Treat that as a remedy, not a plan.

Check the agent belongs to an approved redress scheme before you instruct, either The Property Ombudsman or Property Redress, because that is your free route to a complaint later.

Can you negotiate the fee, and what actually moves it?

Yes, and the useful version of that advice is a number. Both the HomeOwners Alliance and MoneySavingExpert point you at the same target: 1% plus VAT, which is 1.2% including VAT, on sole agency. On a £300,000 sale that is £3,600, which is £300 to £660 below the 1.3% to 1.42% central band, and £660 below the 1.42% average.

Four things move the number. Get three quotes, so you have something real to quote back. Say you hold a cheaper written quote elsewhere, because your agent would rather cut the rate than lose you. Ask for a sliding scale that pays them more for beating a target price. And if the rate will not move, negotiate your tie-in and notice period instead, which is often the more valuable win.

If price is your main lever, our guides to the cheapest estate agent fees in the UK and online estate agents compare the low cost models properly. London runs on its own logic, and average London estate agent fees covers it.

Which selling costs come off your capital gains tax bill?

Your sale can produce a chargeable gain if the property was ever let, is a second home, was inherited, or is somewhere you moved out of years ago. On that gain some selling costs are deductible and some are not, and the list is a closed one. HMRC's capital gains manual puts it in terms: "The definition is exhaustive. No other expenditure is allowable unless specifically provided for by the capital gains legislation."

On the list: fees or commission for the professional services of a surveyor, valuer, auctioneer, accountant, agent or legal adviser; the costs of transfer or conveyance; and, on a sale, the costs of advertising to find a buyer. That last limb is why your premium portal listing and your marketing photography go in alongside the commission. Money you spent genuinely improving the property is dealt with separately and is not caught by this list.

Not on the list: removals, storage, cleaning, and cosmetic work done to make the house show well. Mortgage redemption fees and early repayment charges are out too, and interest is ruled out outright. A withdrawal fee is out for a simpler reason. If your property never sold, there was no disposal for the cost to be incidental to.

The sort, on a £300,000 sale of a former rental, at the 1.42% average. Removals sit between the HomeOwners Alliance figures of £334 for a one-bedroom local move and £731 for a three-bedroom one.

Line on your completion statement	Typical cost	Comes off the gain?
Estate agent commission at 1.42% including VAT	£4,260	Yes, in full
Premium portal listing and photography	£300	Yes, as advertising to find a buyer
Removals	£550	No
Total paid, of which allowable	£5,110	£4,560

At the 24% higher residential rate, that £4,560 of allowable cost saves you £1,094 of tax. Your £550 of removals saves you nothing. Your conveyancer's bill is allowable too, and the cost of moving house in the UK breaks down the whole bill.

The VAT has an answer of its own. HMRC's manual is explicit. Where VAT on your disposal costs "is available for set-off in the vendor's VAT account, the expense exclusive of VAT is to be deducted". Where "no set-off is available, the expense inclusive of VAT is to be allowed". You are not registered for VAT on your own house, so you cannot set it off. You deduct the gross £4,260, not the £3,550 net. That single point is worth £170 to you at 24%.

One carve-out matters more than all of it. If the house has only ever been your own home, private residence relief will usually cover the gain, so there is nothing to deduct the fee against and negotiation is your only lever. Where a gain does arise, our complete guide to capital gains tax on property has the mechanics, and the capital gains tax calculator will size it. Keep the completion statement either way: the date you exchange fixes which tax year the sale falls into, and where there is tax to pay it is due within 60 days of completion.

What should you do before you book a valuation?

The order matters more than most sellers expect. Get the fee in pounds including VAT from three agents before you agree a rate with any of them, and read the tie-in clause before you sign, because the term is usually easier to move than the percentage.

Our cost of selling calculator returns your fees, and the share of them that comes off a taxable gain, in under a minute. Take that number into the conversation with each agent. For every other cost in your sale, start at our guide to the cost of selling a property.