Moving home 'costs nearly £9,500'

The cost of moving has shot up as well as house prices

The average cost of moving house in the UK has now risen to £9,486, according to the website Propertyfinder.

The cost has more than tripled in the past 10 years, with charges being dominated by higher stamp duty and estate agents' fees.

While estate agents' charges of £3,027 have risen roughly in line with house prices, stamp duty has shot up from an average of £543 to £5,009.

Legal fees are put at £1,000 while removal costs are now £450 on average.

Warren Bright of Propertyfinder said the increased costs had made moving house harder.

"In the past, when costs were low, there was little to prevent people from making a number of small steps up the housing ladder," he said.

"Now that transaction costs, especially stamp duty, are prohibitive, people are more reluctant to move, or are making fewer, bigger jumps up the ladder."

Stamp duty

Back in 1996 stamp duty was levied at just 1% on properties sold for more than £60,000.

Many buyers, including most first-time ones, escaped paying the tax at all as the average house in the UK cost just £64,441, according to the Halifax bank's house price index.

Since then higher rates of duty have been introduced.

Properties worth over £250,000 are taxed at 3% and those over £500,000 at 4%.

With the average house price now standing at more than £200,000, the vast majority of homes in the UK attract the tax when they are bought, even though the 1% stamp duty charge now kicks in only once the house is worth £125,000.

The analysis of costs by Propertyfinder includes legal and removal fees but does not include fees charged by mortgage lenders or surveyors.