Moving Home Hub

Second-time buyers moving house in the UK: timelines, costs, conveyancing, selling the current home, and SDLT (with surcharge logic if there's any gap between selling and buying).

Where to start if you are moving home

Moving home means running a sale and a purchase at the same time, so the order of the steps matters as much as the costs. Work through it like this:

  1. Know what you are selling. Use the home equity calculator to see what is left after your current mortgage. Use the estate agent fee calculator to see what selling costs. Together they tell you the deposit you can carry forward.
  2. Price the purchase. The SDLT calculator gives the stamp duty for a home mover in England or Northern Ireland, with the band-by-band working. The budget planner adds conveyancing, survey, removals and the mortgage on top.
  3. Check the order of sale and purchase. If you complete on the new home before you have sold the old one, you will usually pay the 5% additional-property surcharge at first. You can reclaim it if you sell your previous main home within 3 years. See buying before selling and the surcharge refund calculator.
  4. Plan the dates. The timeline calculator maps offer to exchange to completion. The conveyancing guides below explain what usually causes delays in a chain.

Timeline & conveyancing

Cost of moving

SDLT when moving home

Selling your current home

Related hubs

All calculators · Mortgages hub · Buying costs hub · First-time buyer hub

Last reviewed: 2 November 2026.