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Sale proceeds calculator

What is actually left in your hand after each of five ways of selling

Not the sale price. What is left once the agent, the solicitor, the lender, the taxman and every week of waiting have all taken their share. Put in what it is worth and what is owed on it, and it prices an open market sale, a cash sale, an auction, a refurbishment first, and a structured sale where the price is fixed today and paid in two parts. What it is decides which costs even apply, so a warehouse is never asked its council tax band.

For: Anybody deciding how to move a property on

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The property
What is it?
A dwelling. Council tax, an EPC and a residential buyer pool.
£
What it costs you to keep owning itEvery week it is unsold you pay this, and it comes straight off whatever route you pick.
£
%
The average two year fix is 5.59% and the average standard variable rate 7.13%. A bridge is far higher.
%
Typically 1% to 5% of the balance, falling each year of the fix. It is payable on every route here, so it never decides between them.
Council tax band
Band C is about £177 a month against the English Band D average of £199. An empty property gets a discount in some councils and a premium of up to 100% in others once it has stood empty a year.
£
Energy at the current cap is about £144 and landlord insurance about £32. An empty property needs unoccupied cover, which costs more, not less.
Selling it on the open market
wk
Nine weeks to find a buyer and sixteen more to complete is the national residential picture.
%
Sole agency is typically 1.42% including VAT. Multiple agency runs to 3.6%.
£
A residential sale averages £929, plus £60 to £120 for the EPC you cannot market without.
£
Usually inside the agent's fee on a residential sale. Photography, a video and a floorplan if it is not.
%
Roughly one agreed residential sale in four collapses, a third of those on the buyer's mortgage. Commercial falls through less often and costs far more when it does.
£
£2,727 on average in wasted legal and survey work, and one seller in ten loses over £5,000. It does not include the months.
The other four routes£62,961 to £116,717
%
Genuine residential cash buyers pay 75 to 82%. Above 85% the price usually gets chipped later, which is the thing the trade audits for.
%
An unmodernised or unmortgageable property often beats its open market price in a room. A clean, ordinary house usually does not.
%
About 2% plus VAT on exchange. Many auctions charge the buyer a premium instead, which comes out of what they will bid.
£
£500 to £1,500 to enter the catalogue, and £300 to £600 for the pack. Both are payable whether it sells or not.
£
Price it properly on the refurbishment estimator rather than guessing it here.
£
Your number. We publish no percentage for value added because every figure in circulation traces to an agent's press release rather than to what houses actually sold for. Look at what the best building on the street achieved: that is the ceiling.
Who funds the work
Nothing out of your pocket, and nothing to repay if it never sells. Priced here at cost plus 25%, which is what carrying somebody else's works for eight months is worth.
%
Fixed today and paid later, so it can sit at or above today's open market price. That premium is what the buyer pays for the time.
%
mo
Tax on the way out£30,086
Capital gains tax is payable within 60 days of completion, not at the end of the tax year. It is the commonest cash flow shock on a sale.
Is this your only or main home?
A second home, a rental or an inherited property. The gain is taxable at 18% and 24%.
£
£
Improvements only, and they have to still be there. A new extension counts, a repainted hallway and eight years of repairs do not.
£
A gain has no rate of its own: it sits on top of your income, so whatever is left of the basic rate band is taxed at 18% and the rest at 24%. Selling in the right tax year is worth real money.
Most left in your hand: refurbished first, then sold£116,717After £50,322 of selling costs, £7,874 of carrying it for 34 weeks, £140,000 to redeem the charge and £30,086 of tax. The worst of the five routes leaves £62,961, so the decision on this page is worth £53,756.
£345,000Gross price
£50,322Costs of selling
£1,006/moOwning it costs
£30,086Tax on the gain
Yours34%Lender41%Selling costs15%Carrying it2%Tax9%
Every route, net in your hand
Refurbished first, then sold£116,717
£345,000 gross, £50,322 of costs, about 34 weeks. The work adds £70,000 and costs £35,000, so it is +£35,000 before the extra 9 weeks of carrying it.
Structured sale£107,472
£275,000 gross, £1,019 of costs, about 6 weeks. £27,500 within about six weeks, then £247,500 on completion in 24 months. If they never complete you keep the down payment and you still own it.
Open market, through an agent£99,607
£275,000 gross, £5,578 of costs, about 25 weeks.
Auction£75,798
£242,000 gross, £8,477 of costs, about 10 weeks.
Cash sale, on your date£62,961
£214,500 gross, £0 of costs, about 3 weeks. The real gap against the open market is £36,646, not the 22% the headline discount suggests.
Where the money goes
Costs of selling£50,322
Agent, legals, EPC and the priced risk of a fall-through.
Carrying it while it sells£7,874
£1,006 a month for 34 weeks. £653 of interest, £177 council tax at band C, £176 of energy, insurance and upkeep.
Redeeming the charge£140,000
No early repayment charge on this one.
The taxable gain£129,678
£345,000 less £150,000 paid, £15,000 of improvements and the costs of sale. The £3,000 annual exemption comes off before the rate is applied.
Capital gains tax£30,086
Payable within 60 days of completion, not at the end of the tax year.
In your hand£116,717
What the decision is worth
Best against worst route£53,756
Refurbished first, then sold against cash sale, on your date. On the same building, on the same day.
Every week you wait£232
What it costs to keep owning it, whatever route you eventually pick.
Where these figures come from

Transaction costs. Residential conveyancing on a sale averages £929 and an EPC £60 to £120. Sole agency is typically 1.42% including VAT and multiple agency reaches 3.6%. Commercial agency runs 1% to 2% plus VAT with a separate marketing budget.

Time. Twenty five weeks from listing to completion on the open market, of which nine are finding a buyer. Three weeks to a cash buyer. Around ten to an auction completion, counting the marketing period before the sale. Six to the point a structured buyer moves in and starts paying.

Fall-throughs. 24% of agreed sales collapse, at an average cost to the seller of £2,727. One seller in ten loses over £5,000.

Cash offers. Genuine buyers pay 75 to 82% of value. Anything above 85% is treated as a red flag by the people who audit that trade, because the price is usually reduced later.

Auction. Seller commission around 2% plus VAT on exchange, entry fees £500 to £1,500 and a legal pack £300 to £600.

Holding costs. English Band D council tax is about £199 a month, and the other bands are statutory ratios of it. Business rates use the 2026/27 multipliers, 43.2p below a £51,000 rateable value and 48.0p at or above it, with small business relief to £12,000 and tapering to £15,000. Empty commercial gets three months' relief, six on industrial, then pays in full.

Tax. Capital gains on residential property is 18% and 24% with a £3,000 annual exempt amount, split according to how much basic rate band your income leaves. Payable within 60 days of completion.

Published UK figures as at September 2026, and every one of them is adjustable. What the property is decides which costs apply: a commercial building has no council tax band and a site has no EPC, but empty premises pay full business rates after three months and a site still has to be insured and secured. On a structured sale the buyer holds a right to buy rather than an obligation, so the balance is not guaranteed: that risk is the reason the agreed price can sit above today's market. The cash figures are drawn from the residential trade, and commercial and land sell to a much smaller pool, so treat that route as indicative and let us price it properly. Capital gains tax here assumes a single UK-resident individual with the full annual exemption available and no other disposals. An estimate, not advice, not a valuation and not an offer.

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