For a long time, estate agent fees have been one of Britain’s great mysteries.
There’s endless debate about what’s fair, what’s not.
And many even suspect that estate agents lie about how many potential customers are on their books.
So, let’s cut through the speculation and look at:
- What average UK estate fees are
- Why cheaper fees could cost you more in other areas
- Why estate agent contracts matter
- What’s changing
- How to avoid being taken advantage of.
And more!
Estate agent fees in 2025
A typical UK estate agent fee currently sits between 1% and 1.5% (plus VAT) of a property’s final sale price.
However, this figure can vary depending on the region and specific company you deal with. For example:
- In London, it’s between 1.4 – 2%
- In Bath it’s around 1.4%.
- In Newcastle, it’s around 1.1%
And, crucially, it only tells part of the picture of the costs around selling a home.
Scotland’s scattered fees
In Scotland, the headline commission looks lower (around 1%).
But by the time you’ve paid all the add-ons, it’s not much cheaper than the rest of the UK.
For example, in some places, you’ll pay extra for:
- Marketing the property
- Viewings
- Mandatory ‘home reports’ (that can cost £300-£600).
One Scottish seller summed it up perfectly on a money forum:
‘By the time I’d paid the extras, my ‘cheap’ agent cost more than my friend’s in Yorkshire – and they did all their viewings for them!’
Beware of lower fees
In general, estate agent fees well below the regional average should ring alarm bells.
The agents at the bottom of the market are typically there for a reason. As the writer John Ruskin put it:
“There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey.”
If estate agents are juggling too many listings, for example, they can’t give yours the attention it deserves.
Fees can be flexible
Some agents will agree to drop their fee if they fail to hit your asking price.
This is a useful bargaining chip. It keeps you both honest, because it aligns both of your incentives.
This is generally more likely with smaller estate agent chains. Larger, more nation-wide ones often have more rigid rules on this.
And always – we repeat, always – check whether VAT is included. Some quote fees ‘plus VAT,’ others ‘including VAT’. The difference could easily add hundreds to your bill.
Contracts are a minefield… so tread carefully!
The contract you sign with an estate agent will often matter more than the percentage fee they charge.
There are three main types of estate agent contract.
- Sole agency contracts (also known as listing agreements)
- Sole selling rights
- Multi-agency.
Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Which one you choose depends on your specific situation, but the most common (and generally recommended) are sole agency contracts.
Other potential contract pitfalls
Industry insiders warn that some estate agents still sneak unfair clauses and hidden fees into contracts.
Before sign, make sure you have completed the following steps:
- Ensure you are clear on all fees and charges
- Check if VAT is included in the fee
- Ensure you are happy with contract length (a rolling contract or eight-week tie-in is more than enough)
- Do not sign contracts with hand-written changes.
Trends and changes in estate agent fees
In the early 2000s, The Guardian reported that London sellers were paying around 3%, while other UK cities averaged between 1% to 1.5%.
During the 2009 downturn, many agents quietly increased commissions to protect profits, knowing sellers had little choice.
But then came the online estate agents.
One of the main players here was Purplebricks (founded in 2012). For a flat few hundred quid, they’d list your home and let you handle the rest.
Great in theory – until sellers realised that ‘less’ sometimes meant less service and less chance of an actual sale.
Fast forward to today, and the industry’s barely recognisable.
Online and hybrid agencies are still bringing a new dimension to the industry. So, traditional players are now forced to prove they’re worth their cut.
Choose your estate agent carefully – or else!
You’re probably not naïve enough to think that every estate agent has your best interests at heart.
But the truth is, many of them do!
So, to be able to spot the best agents, it’s often useful to get a sense of the worst ones available…
Poor estate agent etiquette
One seller on The Luxury Podcast told how their agent organised an open day, then started bringing viewers around at random times for weeks, without notice.
Not so much an open day, then, but an ‘open month’…
Another recounted how their agent openly agreed with a viewer that ‘The kitchen’s a bit small,’ rather than mentioning the clever hidden storage that made it bigger.
It clearly slipped their mind – and the deal slipped away because of it.
And other agents have even let themselves into homes unannounced, while the owners were abroad, just to show a property.
One owner received a text from their agent mid-holiday asking how to turn the heating off – because they were standing in the living room.
Other estate agent tricks of the trade are more subtle.
Lying about valuations
Suggesting inflated house valuations to flatter you into signing up, only to nudge the price down later, is quite common.
And with house prices being so subjective, it’s sometimes tricky to spot whether they’re doing this or not.
Then there’s outright corruption.
Corruption
In 2019, three Berkshire estate agents were fined over £600,000 by the UK government for illegal price-fixing.
They secretly agreed minimum commission rates across towns like Wokingham and Bracknell.
For seven years, they’d met up, swapped pricing info and made sure no one undercut anyone else. Sellers had no idea.
Stories like this are rare, and UK estate agents are regulated, but it still goes on.
That’s why reading your contract, and choosing your agent carefully, matters more than you might think.
A look beyond the UK
Think Britain’s estate agent fee system is bad?
Try selling a house in the USA…
There, estate agents (also known as ‘realtors’) typically take a whopping 5-6% cut of the sale price.
That’s split between buyer and seller agents, which is what pushes the number up. Sellers over there say goodbye to a much larger chunk of their price as a result.
The difference is both structural and cultural.
In the US, agents are self-employed brokers who build personal brands and relationships.
Their success depends entirely on repeat business and referrals. This often creates professionals who are hard-working, charming, and skilled.
It’s survival of the fittest – only the best can afford to pay their bills!
By contrast, most UK agents are salaried employees, working for corporate chains where the focus is volume, not relationships.
This means you might sometimes get a worse service, albeit at a lower fee.
Australia’s hybrid model
In Australia, the system’s a hybrid. Fees hover around 2-3%, but agents are often self-employed and highly motivated.
They hustle harder because it’s their name on the line.
Recently, the owners of the nation’s largest real estate listings website came under investigation by Australia’s consumer watchdog.
The latter will investigate allegations of shutting our new players and driving up advertising prices (up 30% in the past three years).
Lessons
The key lesson from all of this?
No two markets are alike. In some countries, agents overcharge. In others, they overcomplicate.
The UK sits somewhere in the middle. Just make sure you do research and negotiate on fees before committing.
Avoiding estate agent fees
There are several alternatives to selling your property with an estate agent.
Some of these, such as selling at a property auction, come with different fees.
Others, such as selling to a cash buyer (like We Buy Any Home), come without fees.
(However, both usually result in a lower selling price. Auctions are typically for those with unusual properties and cash buyers for those who want to sell fast.)
Of course, you can also sell your home yourself. But this requires a level of knowledge, experience, and time, that most sellers don’t have.
The future of estate agency fees
Hybrid agencies, AI tools, and social media mean that sellers have more power than ever.
Some experts think that commission rates will fall further as technology handles the grunt work.
Others think we’ll see a rise in performance-based pricing, where agents earn more if they exceed expectations.
And there’s even talk among property futurists that AI could eventually replace agents altogether.
It’s even having an impact already. One popular example is with potential sellers using AI to review and summarise key parts of estate agent contracts.
There’s also a big push for more transparency. Sellers are demanding clearer breakdowns of where their money goes.
However, one thing that’s unlikely to change is some sellers being tempted to pick the cheapest option.
It’s still the biggest mistake you can possibly make. A cheap agent will cost you far more than an expensive one ever would.
In the words of the oil well fire firefighter Red Adair: ‘If you think a professional is expensive, wait until you hire an amateur.’
