Buying a home in London: what it costs and what we check

Buying a home in London at a glance

How much does a home cost in each part of London?

London prices vary more by borough than by anything else. The table shows the average price in August 2026 from the UK House Price Index, the average a first-time buyer paid, the average flat, and the change over 12 months. The leasehold share comes from the standard-price sales HM Land Registry recorded in the 12 months to August 2026. The last column is the stamp duty a first-time buyer pays at their borough’s average.

*The City of London has few sales (113 in the 12 months), so its averages move a lot from month to month.

Averages hide a wide range: many homes sell for much less, and many for more. Rows in the stamp duty column marked “no relief” are above £500,000, where first-time buyer relief is lost.

In August 2026 no borough in this table had an average house price near £300,000, but in Barking and Dagenham the average flat was £245,845.

Leasehold share: standard-price sales registered with HM Land Registry, 1 Sep 2025 to 31 Aug 2026, as downloaded on 29 Oct 2026. Recent months are still being registered. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Where does first-time buyer relief stop working at London prices?

First-time buyers in England pay no stamp duty on the first £300,000 and 5% on the part up to £500,000. If the price is even £1 over £500,000, the relief is lost and the standard rates apply to the whole price. Outside London few first-time buyers get near that limit. In London the average first-time buyer price is £473,051, and in Hackney, Islington and the City the average is already over £500,000.

Three London prices, run through the calculator:

Prices are the House Price Index figures rounded to the nearest £5,000, so they move with the data.

If your offer is close to £500,000, check both sides of the limit before you agree a price. Our first-time buyer stamp duty calculator also checks whether you count as a first-time buyer. When we act on your purchase in England, we file the Stamp Duty return and pay HMRC from the money you send us.

Half of London sales are leasehold: what do lenders need from the lease?

Most London flats, and some houses, are sold leasehold: you own the home for a fixed number of years, and a landlord owns the building. Before you exchange we check the years left on the lease, the ground rent, the service charge and who manages the building. Your lender has its own rules on how short a lease it will lend on, and they differ.

Lenders change their criteria. We check your lender’s current rule when you instruct us. For which mortgage suits you, speak to a mortgage adviser.

The seller’s managing agent fills in a leasehold information form, the LPE1, with the service charge, the ground rent and any building works planned. We read it against the lease. If the lease is short, the price should reflect what an extension will cost. More on leasehold and lease extensions.

Is the block 11 metres or five storeys high?

If the building has at least two flats and is at least 11 metres high, or has at least five storeys, the Building Safety Act 2022 treats it as a “relevant building”. For a buyer that means extra documents: usually the landlord’s certificate and the seller’s leaseholder deed of certificate, which show who pays for any fire safety work on the building. Lenders also ask about the outside walls.

30 of the 167 leasehold buyers who asked us for a quote said the flat was in a building of 5 or more storeys. 12 were not sure (website quote requests, 2 Sep–29 Oct 2026). If you are not sure, tell us when you get a quote; the managing agent can confirm the height. More on the leaseholder deed of certificate.

These leaseholder protections apply to buildings in England. Wales has its own building safety rules.

Buying an ex-council flat in London: what is different?

Many London flats were first sold to council tenants under Right to Buy. If you buy one from the person who bought it from the council, two rules can touch your purchase:

• If they sell within 5 years of buying, they pay back some or all of their discount: all of it in the first year, then 80%, 60%, 40% and 20%. We check that this is paid off from the sale, so the charge is removed from the title.
• If they sell within 10 years, they must first offer the flat to their old landlord or another social landlord in the area. The landlord has 8 weeks to accept. We ask for proof that the offer was made and turned down.

Lenders have their own rules for ex-council blocks. Nationwide does not accept former council flats in blocks over five storeys, and HSBC UK does not normally lend on former council blocks of seven floors or more (intermediary criteria, checked 29 Oct 2026). Speak to your mortgage adviser before you offer.

If you are a council tenant buying your own home, the maximum Right to Buy discount in London is £16,000, or £38,000 in Barking and Dagenham and Havering (GOV.UK). See Right to Buy conveyancing. Right to Buy ended in Wales in January 2019.

Do Lifetime ISA and Help to Buy ISA limits fit London prices?

Both savings schemes have a price limit, and London prices sit close to it.

• Lifetime ISA: you can take your savings out for a first home without a charge only if the price is £450,000 or less and your first payment into the account was at least 12 months ago. The limit is the same across the UK.
• Help to Buy ISA: the limit is £450,000 in London and £250,000 elsewhere. You can no longer open one, but you can claim the bonus until November 2030.

In 6 of the 10 areas in the table above, the average first-time buyer price was over £450,000 in August 2026. If you plan to use a Lifetime ISA, check the price against the limit before you offer.

78 buyers told us they had a Lifetime ISA and 16 a Help to Buy ISA (website quote requests, 2 Sep–29 Oct 2026). The withdrawal must be paid to your conveyancer, and the purchase is expected to complete within 90 days of the withdrawal.

202 of the 670 buyers who asked us for a quote said part of the deposit was a gift, 28 of them from outside the UK.

We are not tax or financial advisers: for whether to save into an ISA, speak to a financial adviser.

What will our fees and the government’s fees be on a London purchase?

Our fees are the same at both offices. Government fees are separate and depend on the price. Our fee for a standard purchase is in the fee table below. It includes our legal fee plus Preparation of SDLT forms, Application for Registration, File Opening Fee (Non-refundable), Telegraphic Transfer Fee (Per Transfer), Mortgage Handling/Admin Fee and Lender Portal Management Fee. Leasehold and new-build homes are priced on a higher fee scale, and a leasehold home also has “Dealing with Leasehold” (£150 + VAT) and a new-build home “New Build Property” (£250 + VAT). Typical disbursements are £46 – £78 on a sale and £319 – £341 on a purchase, for one or two people, including VAT where it applies, itemised in your quotation.

At £475,000, about the London first-time buyer average, the Stamp Duty Land Tax is £8,750 for a first-time buyer or £13,750 for someone moving home. The HM Land Registry fee is in the government fees box above. Neither is our fee, and we never add them to it.

We give you a written, itemised quote before you instruct us. Our London office is at 2nd Floor, 2–5 Minories, London EC3N 1BJ; visits by appointment. Meet our London conveyancing team.

Thinking of buying in Wales instead: what changes?

In Wales you pay Land Transaction Tax to the Welsh Revenue Authority, not stamp duty, and there is no first-time buyer relief. At £425,000 a first-time buyer pays £6,250 in England and £12,375 in Wales. Right to Buy has ended in Wales, and the leaseholder protections above cover buildings in England. We act on purchases in Wales too: 43 of the 670 purchase quote requests were for a home in Wales (website quote requests, 2 Sep–29 Oct 2026).

What happens next

• First-time buyer stamp duty calculator
• What the LPE1 form tells you
• Buying a flat with a short lease
• Gifted deposits: what we check
• London buyers and the £450,000 Lifetime ISA limit
• Our London conveyancing team
• More local, explained