The low cost of selling

Homeowners often wax lyrical about the various fees associated with selling their property, but UK sellers should count themselves lucky when it comes to estate agent fees. New research has found that home sellers in the UK pay much less in estate agent fees than other countries in Europe.

Despite criticism about the fees charged, particularly by High Street agents, an analysis shows that the UK is in fact the cheapest in Europe with owners paying an average of 1.2% of the sale price.

This is lower than all other European countries, with the next cheapest 1.25% in Denmark and 1.75% in Ireland, the only nations where owners pay under 2%. At the other end of the scale, home sellers in Romania are paying 6% commission.

The analysis from estate agent comparison site GetAgent also found that among the cheapest are Greece at 2%, Lithuania at 2.25% and Spain at 2.75%. Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Poland all come in at 3%.

Fees are 3.5% in Austria, and 3.75% in Finland, while they are 4% in Czech Republic, Latvia, Hungary, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden. They come in at 4.5% in Germany, Slovakia and Italy and 5% in France, Cyprus and Malta.

If there was a 6% fee in the UK, on the current average house price of £228,147 it would result in a commission payment of almost £14,000.

‘I think it’s fair to say that estate agents in the UK have a tough time of it when it comes to justifying their fees, with the predominant opinion being that they charge to much for the service provided,’ said Colby Short, GetAgent’s chief executive officer.

‘This really isn’t the case and as this research shows, the UK is actually home to the lowest estate agent fees in the EU and therefore you could argue, the best service as well. Of course, the price of property means there is a degree of relativity and the 6% commission you might pay in Romania will be a lot lower due to the lower cost of getting on the ladder,’ he pointed out.

‘However, this can also be said for the earning potential available and while we aren’t comparing apples for apples in a monetary sense, we wanted to highlight that actually, the fees charged in the UK are, and have historically been, very low,’ he explained.

‘So while you consider if three to four thousand pounds is a justifiable spend when selling a property for hundreds of thousands, remember you could be paying upward of ten thousand if you were to live in another area of Europe,’ he added.