The True Cost of Buying a House: Every Fee Explained

Expect to add 8–15 % on top of the purchase price in fees when you buy a home. Roughly: notary or conveyancing 0.5–2 %, transfer tax 1–13 % (it varies enormously by country), mortgage fees 1–2 %, inspection and valuation €400–€1,200 each, plus insurance and moving. Every first-time buyer runs into this — none of the costs are secret, they just never live in one place. Here's every line item that shows up between the offer and the keys.

The down payment

The obvious one. In most markets it's 10–20% of the purchase price, occasionally as low as 3.5% (US FHA) or as high as 30% (second homes, investment properties, some European banks). The right number for your country and bank deserves its own article — we've broken down how much deposit you actually need market by market. A few things first-time buyers miss:

• Earnest money / deposit is usually paid at offer acceptance and counts toward the down payment — but if you back out without a contract contingency, you may lose it.
• Down payment gifts from family often need a paper trail (a "gift letter") so the bank doesn't flag the deposit as an undisclosed loan.
• The down payment you "need" and the down payment that avoids private mortgage insurance (PMI in the US, CMHC in Canada, LMI in Australia) are usually different numbers. Paying 20% instead of 10% can save you thousands per year in insurance premiums.

And if you're buying with a partner, agree in writing who contributes what to the deposit before the notary appointment — the default 50/50 deed rarely matches who actually paid.

Notary, legal, and conveyancing fees

Whoever does the legal paperwork — a notary in continental Europe, a solicitor in the UK and Ireland, a real estate attorney or escrow agent in the US — gets paid a percentage or a flat fee. Expect 0.5–2% of the purchase price.

In most countries this is unavoidable: the notary or solicitor is the one who actually transfers legal ownership, registers the deed, and handles the money. Shopping around helps — fees vary more than people think — but you cannot skip this step. If you want to know what that appointment actually looks like — what gets read aloud, who attends, when the money moves — here's what happens at the notary, minute by minute.

Transfer tax and stamp duty

This is the line item that surprises people the most — and the one where your country, and even your region, moves the bill by tens of thousands. Depending on where you buy, the government takes between 1% and 13% of the purchase price as a tax on the transaction itself:

Two things jump out of that table. First, the region can matter as much as the country. A €300,000 resale home carries €18,000 of transfer tax in a 6% Spanish community and €30,000 in a 10% one — €12,000 of difference for crossing an internal border. The same house in Bavaria (3.5%) versus North Rhine-Westphalia (6.5%) is a €9,000 swing. Second, new build versus resale can flip the regime entirely: in France the bill drops from ~8% to ~2–3% for a new build, while in Spain it switches from ITP to VAT plus stamp duty.

Look up your exact rate — for your region, your property type and your buyer profile — before you make an offer. On a €300,000 house this single line ranges from €0 (a young first-time buyer in the Netherlands) to €30,000 (a high-ITP Spanish community). No other number on this page moves that much.

Mortgage-related fees

The loan itself has costs beyond the interest rate:

• Arrangement / origination fee — typically 0.5–2% of the loan amount
• Valuation fee — the bank's own appraisal of the property, €200–€600 / $300–$700
• Mortgage deed registration — the government fee to register the mortgage against the property
• Broker fee if you used a mortgage broker — sometimes paid by the lender, sometimes by you
• Mortgage protection insurance — required by many European banks, optional in most US states

If you're comparing mortgage offers, look at the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) rather than the headline interest rate — the APR rolls these fees into a single number so you can compare apples to apples. And before you compare fees at all, know your ceiling: how much you can actually borrow depends on debt-to-income rules that vary by country, and it determines every other number on this list.

Valuation, inspection, and survey

The bank pays for a valuation to protect its interest. You need a home inspection to protect yours. They are not the same thing.

A valuation confirms the house is worth what the bank is lending. A home inspection tells you the roof has three years left, the electrical panel is from 1978, and there's moisture behind the tiles in the bathroom.

Inspection costs €300–€800 / $400–$900 depending on the property size. It is the single best money you will spend in the entire process — a good inspector either saves you from a house you shouldn't buy, or gives you leverage to renegotiate the price.

Insurance

You will need home insurance before closing — lenders require it. Budget €200–€800 per year depending on property and region.

If you have a mortgage, some countries also require mortgage life insurance (Portugal, Spain) or title insurance (US, Canada). Title insurance in the US typically runs 0.5–1% of the purchase price, paid once at closing.

Moving, furniture, and the first six months

Once you have the keys, you're still spending money:

• Moving company: €500–€3,000 depending on distance and volume
• Utility setup fees: electricity, gas, water, internet — often €100–€300 combined
• Basic furniture and appliances for an empty home: plan for €5,000–€15,000 even when buying carefully
• Immediate repairs the inspector flagged: set aside 1% of the purchase price as a "first six months" fund

Two more budget killers hide just past this list. The first year of ownership brings property tax, community fees and a parade of small surprises — the hidden costs of your first year as a homeowner routinely add a few thousand more. And if you're planning works before you move in, be brutal with the estimate: renovation budgets overrun far more often than they hold, and by bigger margins than anyone admits.

A realistic worked example

You're buying a €300,000 home in a typical European market with a 20% down payment.

The house costs €300,000. You need €102,000 in cash to close the deal and sleep in the bedroom. That's a third more than the down payment alone — and this is a conservative example. Run the same purchase at the two ends of the tax table (holding every other line constant) and the spread becomes obvious:

That's €12,000 of spread between two Spanish regions, and €30,000 between the Dutch starter and the high-tax community — for the identical house at the identical price.

The takeaway

None of these costs are surprising to your notary, your mortgage broker, or the friend who bought last year. They only feel like surprises because nobody ever writes them in one place at the beginning.

Write them down. Track every single one as you go. You'll negotiate harder, you'll sleep better, and when someone asks "how much did your house actually cost?" you'll have a real answer — not a guess.

CasaTab was built to make this easy. One place for every cost, from the first deposit to the last light fixture, in every category that matters, with receipts attached and shared with your partner. Start a free house and log your first expense in under a minute.