The Buying Guide

Before looking at property, work out what you can raise and what the move will cost beyond the purchase price. A lender will assess what it may advance using factors such as your income, regular outgoings, existing commitments, employment and credit history. Your deposit is the portion you provide yourself.

Deposit and mortgage

How much you can put in, and how much a lender is likely to advance on top of it. The two together set your realistic ceiling, not the asking prices you like the look of.

Legal and conveyancing fees

The cost of the solicitor or licensed conveyancer who carries out the legal transfer, plus the search fees they pay on your behalf.

Survey costs

A survey you commission for your own benefit is a separate cost from anything your lender arranges. Decision 06 explains why the two are not interchangeable.

Property tax

Stamp Duty Land Tax applies to property in England and Northern Ireland. Land Transaction Tax applies in Wales. Which one you face depends on where the property is, not where you live.

Moving costs

Removals, storage if the dates do not meet, and the practical expense of getting a household from one address to another.

Ongoing costs

Council tax and maintenance apply from completion. Arrange buildings insurance from the point advised by your conveyancer and lender, which is often exchange. On a leasehold property, also account for service charges and any ground rent payable under the lease.

A contingency

Money held back for what the process turns up. A purchase that only works if nothing goes wrong is a purchase with no margin in it.

Sellers and agents take a prepared buyer more seriously, and the paperwork is far easier to gather calmly than under pressure once an offer is on the table.

An agreement in principle

Where you are borrowing, a lender can give a written statement estimating what it may lend you. It is worth having before you view. Taking one from a lender does not oblige you to borrow from that lender.

It is not a mortgage offer

An agreement or decision in principle is an estimate based on the information given at the time. The formal offer comes later, after the lender has completed its checks on both you and the property, and it can differ.

Proof of identity and address

Expect to provide photographic identity such as a passport or driving licence, and a recent document confirming your address. Agents and conveyancers are required to carry out these checks.

Proof of deposit and source of funds

Where your money has come from, evidenced. Payslips, a P60, or tax returns and accounts if you are self-employed. A gift towards the deposit usually needs its own written confirmation.

Cash buyers are not exempt

Buying without a mortgage still means evidencing that the funds are available and where they came from.

Send documents carefully

Never send identity or financial documents through a channel you have not verified. Confirm who you are sending them to using contact details you already hold, not details supplied in the request itself.

Photographs are taken to show a property at its best. A viewing is where you find out how it actually lives, and what the listing did not mention.

Set your priorities first

Location, property type, size, and the practical things a floor plan will not tell you: light through the day, noise, storage, parking, and the journeys you will make every week.

View properly

Walk the whole property, look at it in daylight where you can, and go back a second time before you commit to anything. Photographs are not a substitute for standing in the rooms.

Ask the practical questions

Tenure, council tax band, the energy performance certificate, parking arrangements, which fixtures and fittings are included, whether there is an onward chain, and any works the seller knows about.

For a leasehold property, ask more

How many years remain on the lease, what the service charge is and what it covers, whether ground rent is payable, whether major works are planned, and who manages the building.

An offer is a proposal, and how you present it matters as much as the number. A seller is weighing certainty as well as price.

Offers go through the agent

An offer on a property Dukes is marketing is normally submitted to Dukes, who put it to the seller. You can talk to us about a property for sale or arrange a viewing at any point.

Say more than the price

State what you are offering, how you are funding it, whether you have a property to sell, and the timing that would suit you. A clearly explained offer is easier for a seller to accept.

An accepted offer is not binding

In England and Wales neither side is legally committed until contracts are exchanged. Until that point either party can still withdraw.

Things may come to light

A survey or the legal investigation can raise matters that genuinely change what you are buying. Those are proper grounds to reconsider, and the right time to raise them is as soon as you know.

Deal straightforwardly

Holding something back to reopen the price shortly before exchange puts the whole transaction, and any chain behind it, at risk. Raise what changes your position when it changes.

The legal transfer of ownership is done by a solicitor or a licensed conveyancer acting for you. Instruct one promptly once your offer is accepted, because the legal work sets the pace of everything that follows.

What they handle

The contract and the title, the property searches, enquiries raised with the seller's side, your lender's requirements, and the arrangements for completion.

Instruct early

The file cannot open until you have appointed someone. A delay here is a delay to every stage after it.

Ask what is and is not included

Get the fee structure and the likely disbursements in writing at the outset, so the total cost of the legal work is known rather than discovered.

Verify bank details independently

Never act on payment instructions that arrive by email alone, and never accept a late change to account details. Confirm them by telephoning your conveyancer on a number you obtained separately, before any money moves.

These two are routinely confused, and the confusion is expensive. They are commissioned for different people and answer different questions.

A lender's valuation is for the lender

It exists to satisfy your lender that the property is adequate security for the loan. It is not a condition report, it is not carried out for you, and it does not protect you if something is wrong with the property.

A survey is for you

A survey you commission reports on the condition of the building and can identify defects, repairs and matters worth investigating before you are committed.

Match the level to the property

Surveys are available at different levels of detail. The age, construction and apparent condition of the property should decide which one is appropriate.

Choose your own professional

Appoint a suitably qualified surveyor of your own choosing and confirm the scope of the inspection before instructing them.

By this point you have searches, a survey and a mortgage offer. This is the stage to read them properly, with the people qualified to interpret them.

Go through the findings

Review the search results, the survey, your mortgage offer and the contract with your conveyancer, your surveyor and your lender as appropriate. Ask about anything you do not follow.

Confirm fixtures and fittings

What is staying and what is leaving should be recorded in the contract paperwork rather than assumed from what you saw at the viewing.

Understand freehold and leasehold

Freehold means you own the building and the land it stands on. Leasehold means you own it for a fixed term under a lease, with obligations to a landlord or management company and, commonly, a service charge. Your conveyancer should explain what your lease actually requires of you.

Check the tax position

For a property in England or Northern Ireland, Stamp Duty Land Tax may be payable. Our calculator gives an illustrative estimate only. It is not tax advice, and the amount depends on your circumstances.

Property in Wales is different

Land Transaction Tax applies in Wales instead of Stamp Duty Land Tax, under its own rates and thresholds. The Dukes calculator does not estimate Land Transaction Tax. Ask your conveyancer or check the Welsh Revenue Authority.

Exchange is the point the transaction becomes real. In England and Wales it is what turns an agreement into a legal commitment on both sides.

What exchange does

Signed contracts are exchanged between the two sides and both parties become legally bound to the sale and purchase.

Deposit and completion date

The deposit and the agreed completion date are normally dealt with at this stage. Your conveyancer will confirm what is required and when.

Do not exchange early

Exchange only when your conveyancer confirms everything is in order: searches, enquiries, survey, funding and the contract itself.

Buildings insurance

Responsibility for the property can pass to you at exchange, and buildings insurance may be required from that moment. Confirm the position with your conveyancer and your lender rather than assuming it starts at completion.

Withdrawing afterwards is serious

Pulling out after exchange can mean losing your deposit and being liable to compensate the seller. It is not a decision to leave open.

Completion is when ownership actually changes hands and the property becomes yours.

The money moves

Your conveyancer transfers the purchase funds to the seller's conveyancer.

Ownership passes and keys are released

Once the funds are received, the sale completes and the keys are released to you.

The legal tidying up

Your conveyancer normally deals with the tax return and any payment due, and with registering the change of ownership at HM Land Registry, as applicable to your purchase.

Your own arrangements

Arrange utilities and council tax from completion, keep buildings insurance in force from the point agreed with your conveyancer and lender, and update your address wherever required. It is worth preparing the list before completion day.