How to buy a house in England: step by step

Buying a home in England takes about 5 months on average, from an accepted offer to getting the keys¹. Along the way you will need a deposit, a mortgage, a solicitor and, in most cases, a survey, and each stage has its own costs and its own risks of delay. The process is long because it is binding only at a late point: until contracts are exchanged, either side can usually walk away.

The good news is that the stages follow a recognisable order. You work out what you can afford, get an indication from a lender of what it would lend you, find a property and make an offer, then apply formally for the mortgage while a solicitor does the legal work. Once the lender issues a mortgage offer and the legal checks are done, contracts are exchanged and the purchase becomes binding, followed by completion, when the money changes hands and you own the home¹.

This page sets out each stage in turn, with the typical timings, the costs involved, and where each party fits in. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different processes, covered in our guides to buying a home in Scotland and buying a home in Northern Ireland.

The steps to buying a home, from budget to moving in

The English process runs in a fairly fixed sequence, and knowing the order helps you see what you can do in parallel and what has to wait. First comes the budget: how much deposit you have and how much a lender might let you borrow. Then comes the decision in principle, a non-binding indication from a lender that, in principle, it would lend to you. Estate agents often want to see one before taking your offer seriously⁶.

Once your offer is accepted, the work begins in earnest. You submit a full mortgage application, the lender arranges a valuation of the property, and your solicitor starts the conveyancing: checking the title, running local searches and drawing up the contract. When the lender is satisfied and the legal work is complete, contracts are exchanged, which is the moment the deal becomes binding, and then completion follows, when the money is transferred and you can move in. A house purchase typically takes 6 to 8 weeks to reach completion once the machinery is in motion⁷, though the whole journey, including the time before your offer is accepted, averages about 5 months¹.

Caption: The seven stages of buying a home in England. Nothing is legally binding until exchange of contracts.

Working out what you can afford to borrow

Two numbers set your budget: your deposit and the amount a lender will advance. You will usually need to save a deposit of at least 5% of the price of the property you want to buy², and official guidance gives the same figure: a deposit of at least five per cent of the house price³. On a house worth £200,000 with a 95% mortgage, you would put down £10,000 of your own money and borrow the remaining £190,000². Some lenders also offer no-deposit, 1% and 2% deposit mortgages to first-time buyers who meet their affordability checks⁸.

On the borrowing side, banks will generally allow a maximum of around four-and-a-half times your annual salary, though this varies². In some circumstances, with particular lenders, you may be able to borrow up to six times your income². A worked example: if you earn £43,000, you might be able to borrow £193,500, which is enough to buy a £200,000 home with a 5% deposit⁹. If you are buying with someone else, both incomes count: two buyers earning £30,000 each will typically be able to borrow between £210,000 and £300,000 in total, subject to meeting the lender's other affordability criteria¹⁰. Buying alone on £30,000, the figure might be up to £150,000¹¹.

The income multiple is only a starting point. The amount you can actually borrow depends on things like your credit score, your income and outgoings, and the value of the home you want to buy¹². Lenders also stress-test whether you could keep up payments, so existing debts and regular spending reduce what is on offer. For context, the average house purchase mortgage in the first quarter of 2026 took 21.4 per cent of the borrower's gross income¹³, and first-time buyers surveyed in January 2026 thought it would take them around six and a half years on average until they were in a position to buy their first home¹⁴.

Our guides to how much deposit you need, the costs of buying a house and buying a home with someone else cover these questions in more detail.

Decision in principle: a first check, not a guarantee

Before you start viewing homes in earnest, most buyers get a decision in principle from a lender. This is also known as an agreement in principle, a mortgage promise or a mortgage in principle⁶, and most lenders will tell you how much money they are willing to lend you under it³. It is a written indication of the amount a lender would probably advance, based on an initial look at your finances.

The crucial thing to understand is what it is not. An agreement in principle is not a mortgage offer or an official confirmation that you have a mortgage⁶, and a decision in principle is not a guarantee⁶. The lender has not yet checked the property, nor done the full affordability assessment that comes with a real application. It is a first check on you, not a promise of the loan.

You can get one either by approaching a mortgage lender directly or by going via a mortgage broker⁶, and some broker services will provide one with no obligation to go on and take a mortgage¹⁵. A decision in principle typically lasts for six months⁴, so if your property search runs on longer than that, you may need a fresh one.

What lenders ask for in a decision in principle

To produce the indication, a lender looks at the same basics it will examine in full later: your income, your outgoings, your credit history and the size of your deposit¹². Because a credit check is usually involved⁴, the figures a lender reaches are only as good as the information you give, and anything that later turns out to be different, such as a debt you did not declare, can change the outcome when you apply properly.

If you are self-employed, expect to be asked for more. Self-employed applicants typically need statements from an accountant and tax return form SA302, plus supporting information such as bank statements and receipts¹⁶. Some lenders want details of your tax assessments and your accounts from the last three years, including the current tax year⁴, though some will accept two SA302 forms¹⁷. Sole traders generally declare income using self-assessment and have tax calculated by HMRC, with lenders basing their calculations on the SA302 form¹⁷.

If you have marks on your credit history, you may need to get a mortgage from a specialist lender¹¹. Where you are buying jointly, lenders run a credit check on each applicant before granting a mortgage, and if one party has a poor credit score it could affect the lender's decision¹¹. Our guide to credit scores and credit reports explains how to check your file before a lender does.

Making an offer on a property

Once you have found a home, you make an offer through the estate agent. Estate agents will often want to ensure that you will be able to get a mortgage on a property before you put in an offer, so it can be helpful to have a decision in principle by this point⁶. In England, an accepted offer is made "subject to contract", which means it is not legally binding on you or the seller until contracts are exchanged. Our guide to what "subject to contract" means explains the implications, and making an offer on a house covers the tactics and the pitfalls, including how to avoid being gazumped.

New-build homes work differently. Instead of you making an offer, the builder makes an offer to sell the property to you, which comes with a list of conditions, and most properties are sold at a fixed price, often before the home has been built, known as buying off-plan². Our guide to buying a new build home covers that route separately.

Full mortgage application and valuation

With an offer accepted, the full mortgage application is submitted. This is where the lender examines income, outgoings and credit history in detail, and a mortgage application typically takes two to four weeks to process, varying with the lender's workload and the applicant's circumstances¹⁵. A mortgage offer generally arrives within four weeks of applying¹⁶.

As part of the application, the lender arranges a mortgage valuation of the property you are buying. This is done for the lender's purposes, to make sure the property meets its criteria for lending¹⁸. The valuer typically reaches a figure by looking at three sales transactions of similar types of properties in the local area, along with the professional's knowledge of the local market¹⁹.

A valuation that comes in lower than the price you agreed can cause problems with the mortgage, which our guide to a valuation lower than your offer covers. For the survey itself, see HomeBuyer Report or Building Survey.

Mortgage offer: usually valid for around six months

The mortgage offer is a formal written offer to you from a bank or building society to lend an approved amount against a property²⁰. It sets out the exact terms: the amount, the rate type, the term and any conditions. Receiving it is a significant milestone, because your solicitor cannot exchange contracts until it is in place and the lender is ready to release the funds.

Purchase mortgage offers are usually valid for six months⁴. That window matters because the English purchase can be slow: buying a home takes about 5 months on average¹, and if a chain stalls, the gap between your offer being issued and completion can stretch beyond six months. Remortgage offers are typically only valid for three months, and this varies between lenders⁴.

Mortgage terms have also been changing. In the recent past most people took out 25-year terms, but terms of 30, 35 and 40 years have become increasingly common for first-time buyers². A longer term lowers the monthly payment but increases the total interest paid over the life of the loan. The mortgages section explains the different rate types and how they behave.

When a mortgage offer can fall away

A mortgage offer feels like the finish line, but it is conditional, and things can still go wrong before completion. The offer was made on the basis of the information you gave and the property as valued, so if your circumstances change, for example you take on new debt, change jobs or your income falls, the lender can re-assess. A decision in principle is not a guarantee⁶, and the same caution runs through the full application: the lender's commitment depends on the facts staying as they were.

The property side carries its own risk. The valuation is carried out for the lender's purposes, to make sure the property meets its criteria for lending¹⁸, so a property that fails those criteria can see the offer withdrawn. And if the purchase drags on past the offer's usual six-month validity⁴, the offer can simply expire before anyone completes, leaving the buyer to apply again.

If something goes wrong with a valuation or survey and you believe the lender or surveyor handled it badly, the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at complaints about mortgage valuations and surveys¹⁸. Our guide to complaining when buying a home goes wrong sets out the process.

Conveyancing: the legal work behind the purchase

Conveyancing is the legal process involved in property transactions²⁰, and it is carried out by a solicitor or licensed conveyancer acting for you. Buying a home is a major financial commitment which involves immediate costs, such as legal fees and Stamp Duty Land Tax²¹, and the legal work is there to make sure you actually get what you are paying for: a clear title, with no nasty surprises attached.

The work falls into broad stages. Your conveyancer checks the title deeds to confirm the seller owns the property and can sell it, runs local searches to flag issues you need to be aware of, negotiates the contract with the seller's solicitor, deals with the paperwork, transfers the funds and taxes for the purchase, and registers the property in your name²². If you are buying with someone else, the solicitor also arranges the joint ownership²². In Scotland the solicitor's role is similar, covering offers, title checks, contract negotiation, funds, taxes and registration²², though the overall process differs, as our guide to buying a home in Scotland explains.

Conveyancing typically takes around 6 weeks if there are no issues or hold-ups, but it could take a few months, particularly in a chain⁵. Because nothing is binding until exchange, a slow or complicated chain is the most common source of delay, and our guides to conveyancing, exchange of contracts and completion and how long buying takes after an offer is accepted cover what can stretch it. One fraud risk worth knowing about is conveyancing fraud, where criminals intercept the emails sending your deposit to your solicitor.

Conveyancing costs: what solicitors typically charge

Conveyancing costs come in two parts: the legal fees themselves and the disbursements, which are fees for third-party services such as local searches. If you are buying a house, conveyancing legal fees cost between £300 and £1,500 and are usually linked to the value of the property⁵. Average conveyancing fees when buying range from around £500 to £1,150 plus disbursements²³. Disbursements could add up to £700 or even more⁵.

The searches are a large chunk of that. Local searches cost from £250 to £450 when buying a house, and they exist so your conveyancer can flag up any issues you need to be aware of⁵. Registering the change of ownership with the Land Registry costs £200 to £300⁵. If the property is leasehold, add around £300 to the costs⁵. As a single benchmark, conveyancing came to £1,050 in one 2026 estimate of the cost of buying and selling an averagely priced property⁵.

Caption: The main components of conveyancing costs. Legal fees are usually linked to the property's value, and leasehold purchases cost more.

These are not the only costs of buying: as part of the process you may also need to pay an independent surveyor, a mortgage arrangement fee and Stamp Duty Land Tax, alongside the solicitor²¹. Our guide to the costs of buying a house brings them together, and Stamp Duty Land Tax and first-time buyer relief have their own pages. Whether to use a solicitor or a licensed conveyancer is covered in solicitor or conveyancer.

Where to get free help

You do not have to pay for advice at every stage. A decision in principle can be obtained directly from a lender or through a broker⁶, and some broker services provide one with no obligation to take a mortgage¹⁵. For complaints about how a mortgage valuation or survey was handled, the Financial Ombudsman Service is a free service that can look at the complaint once you have raised it with the firm¹⁸.

For the government schemes that can help with a deposit or a first home, see first-time buyer schemes in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, along with the guides to shared ownership, Right to Buy and the Help to Buy equity loan. The home-buying section brings all of these together, and getting started with your money covers the saving side of building a deposit.