New research has found that it costs the average person just under £12,000 to move home – a rise of 59% in the past decade.

The cost was £11,894 in 2014 compared to £7,475 in 2004, according to the study by Post Office Money and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr).

The 2014 costs came from:

• Stamp duty - £3,620 - up 87%
• Estate agent fees - £5,214 - up 61%
• Surveyors fees - £607 - up 51%
• Conveyancing costs - £1,419 – up 37%
• Removals - £1,034 - up 21%

The costs rose nearly twice as fast as the cost of living which increased by 29.4% over the same period.

Stamp duty and regional differences

The changes to stamp duty, which came into effect in December, will mean that most people buying after that date will be paying less than previously.

However, the overall increase in house prices over the last decade has seen many homes being pushed into higher brackets.

People in the South East have seen their cost rise the most – up 97% over the past 10 years to £16,510.

London is a particularly expensive place to change homes with an average cost of £27,946 – more than twice the UK average. Northern Ireland is the cheapest place to move at just £6,453.

More expensive in the future

The cost of moving is set to get even higher by the end of the decade, with estimates putting the total at £15,414 by 2020.

And this number could be even higher as the researchers found that 84% of prospective homebuyers had under-estimated their costs.

When surveyed, people who were planning to move in the next three years thought that their costs would be around £6,895 – half of what they are likely to pay.

John Willcock, head of mortgages at Post Office Money, says that people are more worried about saving for a deposit and are ignoring the other costs associated with buying a new home.

He says that people looking to buy a new home should be setting money aside for these costs and that they should be thought of as part of the overall cost of buying, not just as ‘add-ons’.

For more information, contact one of the sales team in your local Strutt & Parker office.