What an upfront sales pack costs and how long it takes

Updated 7 November 2026. Indicative figures for England and Wales; prices vary by area and provider.

At 2026 prices the paid items in a full upfront sales pack for a freehold house come to roughly £500 to £900: searches £250 to £450, a Level 2 condition report £400 to £1,000, title documents £14, an identity check £10 to £30, plus an EPC (£60 to £90) only if the existing one has expired. A leasehold flat adds the freeholder's or managing agent's information pack, typically £150 to £400 today. The government's own estimate of the extra upfront cost under the reform is around £310, assuming a lighter condition report and more free data.

A house pack usually completes in two to three weeks, set by the council's search turnaround and the surveyor's diary. A flat can take up to four weeks longer while the managing agent responds.

Red sale tags scattered on a dark surface — Most of a pack's cost is the searches and the survey, which a buyer would otherwise pay for later.

Cost of each item

Indicative 2026 figures from the published sources listed below. The seller's own time is not costed.
Item	Typical cost	Typical time	Notes
Title register and title plan	£7 each	Minutes	Downloaded from HM Land Registry; extra documents referred to on the register are £7 each too
Council tax band, EPC lookup	Free	Minutes	GOV.UK lookups
New EPC, if the existing one has expired	About £60 to £90	A few days	Accredited domestic energy assessor; certificate valid ten years
Identity check	About £10 to £30 per person	Minutes	Certified digital identity provider; often included in a conveyancer's fee
Search pack (local authority, drainage and water, environmental)	£250 to £450	2 to 20 working days	The local authority element varies most by council; the drainage and water search alone is about £45 to £100
Coal mining or other locality search, where relevant	£40 to £55	1 to 3 days	Only in affected areas
Condition report, RICS Home Survey Level 1	£300 to £900	1 to 2 weeks	Conventional, newer homes
Condition report, Level 2	£400 to £1,000	1 to 2 weeks	The common choice
Condition report, Level 3	£630 to £1,500	2 to 3 weeks	Older, altered or unusual homes
Floor plan	Free to about £50	Minutes to days	Own sketch, agent, or measured plan
Leasehold information pack (LPE1), flats and managed estates	£150 to £400 today	Up to 4 weeks or more	A cap of £200 plus VAT and a 28-day limit are planned under the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024

Worked totals

Scenario	Items	Indicative total
Freehold house, valid EPC, Level 2 survey, no locality search	Title £14, identity £20, searches £350, survey £600	About £980; range £670 to £1,500
Freehold house, light touch: Level 1 survey, cheapest searches	Title £14, identity £10, searches £250, survey £300	About £575
Leasehold flat, Level 2 survey	House items plus LPE1 £275	About £1,250; range £820 to £1,900
Government estimate under the reform	Assumes a lighter condition report and free digital data	About £310

The mid-case of £500 to £900 quoted at the top is the realistic range for a house when a seller chooses the common search set and a Level 1 or modest Level 2 report. The searches and the survey are items a buyer would otherwise pay for later in the sale, so for the transaction as a whole some of the cost moves earlier rather than being added.

What sets the timetable

The council. Local authority search turnaround ranges from a few days at the fastest councils to twenty working days at the slowest. The move of local land charges to HM Land Registry's central register, due to complete by 2028, is shortening one part of this.
The surveyor's diary. Usually one to two weeks to a visit, then a few days for the report.
The managing agent. For flats, the single largest delay. Requesting the leasehold information pack on the first day is the one step that most shortens a flat sale. The 2024 Act's deadline, once in force, will set a 28-day maximum.
The seller. The questionnaire and document gathering take an hour or two if the paperwork is to hand, longer if a certificate has to be traced or re-issued.

Because the quick items (registers, questionnaire, identity, floor plan) can be done in a day, a listing can go live with the pack largely complete and the searches and survey shown as pending with an expected date.

What it saves

Against the government's figures of about 120 days from offer to completion, one in three sales failing and around £400 million a year lost by consumers, the reform's expected saving is about four weeks per transaction. Industry users of digital packs report larger cuts. For an individual seller the practical savings are a problem found and fixed before marketing rather than used to renegotiate after an offer, and a lower chance of paying twice for a sale that collapses.

How costs may change

The leasehold information fee cap (£200 plus VAT signalled) and 28-day deadline, once regulations under the 2024 Act are made.
Cheaper and faster local searches as land charges move to the central register.
The level of condition report the legislation requires, which is the single biggest variable in the total.
Possible guidance on how long searches remain acceptable to lenders, which affects whether a refresher is needed on a slow sale.