Behind the Fee

UK estate agent fees average approximately 1% to 1.18% excluding VAT – among the lowest of any major property market in the world. A 2023 comparison across eight large markets by iad UK, published in Property Industry Eye, found the UK at 1.2% was the cheapest: France charged 5.8%, the US and Italy 5.5%, and Spain 5.0%. Kristjan Byfield, founder of The Depositary and a specialist in the lettings sector, sold his father’s property in Spain recently and paid 5% to an agent he described plainly as not very good. He paid it because that was the going rate, and he didn’t question it. ^1,2

That contrast – UK agents discounting before they’ve even sat down, while other markets charge multiples of that for comparable or worse service – is not a market problem. It is a self-belief problem.

Kotini is a UK property onboarding and compliance platform used by hundreds of estate agencies to manage seller and buyer onboarding, digital identity verification, anti-money laundering (AML) checks, and material information collection.

The negotiation that happens before you ring the doorbell

Estate agents lose the fee conversation in their own heads before they’ve had it with the client. David Mintz, an industry trainer and consultant, described it with uncomfortable precision:

“As I’m walking up the garden path to get to the front door, I’ve already negotiated with myself in my head.”

• David Mintz, industry trainer, Kerfuffle

The internal script goes something like this: you know a competitor has been in ahead of you. You assume they’ve pitched a lower fee. You decide to pre-empt that by discounting yours before anyone has asked you to. You sit down and open with a number that’s already 0.25% below where you started.

Nobody asked you to do that. The vendor didn’t push back. You did it to yourself.

This is what Mintz calls a self-esteem issue. Agents know the work they do. They know they’re at the property on a Friday evening managing an anxious vendor, working through a chain that’s about to collapse, mediating between two parties in the middle of a divorce. They know that none of that is simple. But when the moment comes to price that expertise, they hesitate.

The comparison that tends to land: you don’t haggle with a solicitor. You don’t negotiate the surgeon’s fee while they’re holding the scalpel. You assess whether they’re the right professional for the job, and if they are, you pay their rate.

Estate agents have trained the public to expect a different relationship – and that training has been expensive.

How no-sale, no-fee made the problem structural

The no-sale, no-fee model is almost unique to UK estate agency. Think of almost any other service profession – solicitors, surveyors, architects, accountants – and they charge for their time and expertise regardless of the outcome. Estate agents do not. They absorb all the cost of marketing, viewings, conveyancing support, and negotiation, and get paid only if the transaction completes.

According to TwentyCi industry data analysed by Property Industry Eye, 53.54% of UK homes that left estate agents’ books in 2024 exchanged and completed – meaning nearly half were withdrawn unsold.³ That means estate agents, on the industry’s current model, do the full job and get paid nothing roughly half the time.

Mintz described this plainly: “We are the only industry out there that is expected to work completely at our own risk. And I think that there is a staggering amount of agents that don’t charge anything upfront, that don’t have a minimum fee charged in any event whether the sale goes through or not.”

When you give away that risk for free, you devalue the service. Sarka Wilde, managing director of Distinct Property Consultants and a regional executive for Propertymark, made this connection explicitly: “Will I be motivated more to sell your house if I’m charging 1.5 or 2%, or will I be motivated to sell your house at 0.7%? Also, if people pay that fee, there is commitment on both sides.”

An upfront fee isn’t just about cash flow. It’s a signal that the relationship is a professional one, with real stakes on both sides.

The red flag that vendors ignore

Danny Nash, formerly of the Property Academy, told a story on the No More Waffle podcast that crystallised the self-belief problem in a single scene. She was selling a probate property. She went into the process knowing what she was looking for in an agent. She was prepared to pay up to 2% plus VAT for the right one.

One of the agents she invited around came in and opened with 1%. Before she had said a word about budget or competition, the agent immediately said they could do it for 0.75%.

Kristjan Byfield explained why that’s a red flag: “If your instant reaction to saying a fee is to discount it by 25%, then what you are instantly saying is you don’t have faith in the value you are going to deliver that client. And if you can’t negotiate for yourself, how on earth are you going to negotiate on behalf of your buyer to get them the best possible sale?”

Nash ignored the red flag. The transaction took nearly a year and was described as horrendous. The fee wasn’t the problem. The discount was the symptom of a deeper problem – and the deeper problem showed up later.

What good fee communication actually looks like

The solution isn’t scripting a defence of your fee. It’s understanding that the conversation doesn’t need to be a defence at all. Ann Durrell, managing director of Maddox Noel in Manchester, described the shift: “I think that we could do a better job of explaining what it is that we do and the value of our service.”

That value isn’t just listing on Rightmove and waiting. It is pricing strategy, marketing quality, negotiation skill, and sales progression – and most of that work happens after the offer is accepted, not before. Byfield estimated that finding the buyer is perhaps 10% of the job in a sale transaction. The other 90% is navigating the six months between offer and completion: managing chains, handling down-valuations, keeping solicitors moving, and stopping the whole thing from falling apart.

Vendors don’t know that because agents don’t tell them. And agents don’t tell them because they’re worried about being boring, or taking too long, or making the client feel interrogated. David Mintz offered a reframe: “Communication is as much about what you don’t say as what you do say. All we need to do when we send people into those living rooms is win their confidence. Not only that, we’ve got some social proof that proves it.”

Specific tactics that change the conversation without lengthy explanation:

• Present your fee as a given, not an opener for negotiation. “Our fee for this type of instruction is X. Here’s what that covers.”
• Tie the fee to a specific outcome. Fall-through rates, average achieved percentage above asking price, time from instruction to completion.
• Use social proof. Recent reviews, specific examples (with permission), comparable properties you’ve sold.
• Frame upfront charges around commitment. Wilde charges upfront for photography and anti-money laundering checks. “There is commitment on both sides.”

Qualifications and the race to the bottom

One structural force pushing fees down is the absence of mandatory qualifications. Right now, anyone can open an estate agency. They don’t need training, qualifications, or professional indemnity insurance. That means the market includes agents with 25 years of experience, professional qualifications, and a track record – competing on fee with agents who have none of those things.

Ann Durrell, who holds her Level 3 and Level 4 qualifications and has built them into her team’s development plans, described the industry she’d like to see: “We should be creating an industry of people that are professionally recognised with the relevant qualifications and not just anybody going on Instagram and trying to sell some properties.”

Wilde agreed: “Once we are all proud of what we are doing, it will be easier to go to valuation and say, these are my fees, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry.”

Until qualification requirements are mandatory and enforced, the race to the bottom continues. But that doesn’t mean individual agents have to participate in it.

Where to start

You can’t change the industry standard from a single valuation. But you can change what happens in your valuations.

Three things that shift the fee conversation:

First, stop discounting before you’re asked. Quote your fee. Then stop talking. Let the vendor respond before you adjust anything.

Second, anchor the fee to outcomes. “Our average fall-through rate is X. Our average achieved price is Y% above asking. That’s what this fee buys.” Specifics are more credible than generalities.

Third, introduce an upfront element. Even a small charge for photography, AML checks, or marketing preparation creates real commitment on both sides. Agencies that have introduced upfront fees consistently report that the vendors who pay something are more engaged, more realistic on pricing, and less likely to withdraw.

Mintz’s closing point was direct: “Don’t just expect it to come. Don’t expect to learn it once and be able to do it again in 10 years’ time with the same passion you have for it today. You need to keep training that muscle.”

Frequently asked questions

Why are estate agent fees so much lower in the UK than in other countries?

UK estate agent fees average approximately 1% to 1.18% excluding VAT – the lowest of the eight major markets compared in a 2023 iad UK study published by Property Industry Eye. France (5.8%), Spain (5.0%), the US and Italy (5.5%) all charge multiples of UK rates. The gap is largely explained by the no-sale-no-fee model, which has trained vendors to expect agents to absorb all the risk of a transaction. Decades of online estate agencies competing on price have reinforced this. The result is that UK agents often undercharge for genuinely skilled work, particularly in complex transactions involving chains, down-valuations, or long sales progressions.

Should estate agents charge upfront fees?

Estate agents who charge at least part of their fee upfront typically see lower withdrawal rates, better vendor commitment, and improved cash flow. The upfront amount doesn’t need to be large – even a charge for photography, anti-money laundering checks, or marketing preparation creates a psychological commitment that makes the vendor more invested in the sale completing. The no-sale-no-fee option doesn’t need to disappear – it can simply be priced to reflect the risk the agent is taking on.

How should estate agents respond when a vendor pushes back on fees?

Pushing back on a fee is a buying signal, not a rejection. The most effective response is to hold the fee and offer to explain what it covers – specific outcomes, services, and accountability. Discounting before the vendor has asked for it communicates a lack of confidence in the value being offered, which undermines the entire valuation. If the agent genuinely can’t justify the fee in conversation, that’s a training problem, not a market problem.

What is the impact of mandatory qualifications on estate agency fees?

In markets where estate agents hold mandatory qualifications, consumers tend to have a clearer sense of what professional agency looks like – which supports higher fees. In the UK, where qualifications are currently voluntary, there is no enforced standard that differentiates a trained agent from someone who has just started. Propertymark qualifications and similar credentials exist and are valued within the industry, but consumer awareness of them remains low. Mandatory qualifications, if properly enforced, would likely support a meaningful shift in how consumers value and pay for estate agency services.

If you’re looking at how better onboarding processes can help you justify and collect higher fees – including upfront charges – Kotini’s team would be happy to walk you through how agencies are doing it.

References

1. HomeOwners Alliance, estate agent fee data, 2024
2. iad UK / Property Industry Eye, international estate agent fee comparison, October 2023
3. TwentyCi / Property Industry Eye, UK property exchange and completion data, 2024