Buyers ‘paying £55,000 in hidden extra fees’ on new-build homes – including ‘wildlife’ charges

HOMEBUYERS in the UK are being charged £55,000 in “hidden fees” on new-build properties, analysis suggests. Experts are warning that buyers are unknowingly having to stump up the cost of housebuilders’ taxes when purchasing new homes. Writing for the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, policy analyst Alan Hibben said someone buying a typical £450,000 in the south of the UK has £55,000 of extra costs hidden in the price. He claims these include £10,000 for “biodiversity net gain” – a rule that forces builders to improve wildlife habitats when constructing new homes. Sign up for the First Time Buyer Guide newsletter Thank you! Another £30,000 is paid by builders for “planning obligations”, which goes towards affordable housing and local roads. The remaining £15,000 is made up of planning fees and costs of planning delays. He said that the only tax buyers actually see on their completion statement is stamp duty, adding: “the rest is simply buried in the price”. “The result is a system in which the buyer of a modest new home is quietly funding affordable housing, local roads, biodiversity credits, planning bureaucracy and the cost of navigating a slow, discretionary planning system. “Yet the buyer is never shown the bill,” he said. It also means homeowners may not be able to sell their property for as much as they anticipated if they try and move in the future, as they could overestimate the actual value of the property. Most read in Money Hibben is calling on the Government to make homebuying more transparent, so households can “finally see where there money is going”. He wants the UK to introduce a ” new cost home statement” for every new build sale, which would show the estimated cost of planning obligations, biodiversity obligations, major planning and regulatory fees and SDLT. Comment now