HM Land Registry opened two consultations on 27 October, and between them they cover the two things a foreign buyer in England or Wales needs from the state: what the register says about a property, and what it costs to change the record. One proposes replacing the value-based Scale 2 fee with two fixed fees. The other proposes opening up ownership data. Both close at 11:59pm on 22 December 2026.
Neither is law, and neither changes a bill this month. The fee on an ordinary purchase, Scale 1, is not being changed at all. The fee consultation asks only for early views on whether Scale 1 could be simplified one day, and says outright that the question is not a proposal. What matters now is the direction: fees that no longer depend on value and a register that is easier to search both change the due diligence an agent can do before a client offers.
What the Two Consultations Actually Propose
The fee consultation targets Scale 2, the part of the tariff that covers transfers of equity, assents to a beneficiary after a death, and the registration of a mortgage. Today those applications run through five value bands, and the band is picked by working out the equity in the property, which means subtracting any mortgage that stays on the title and applying the client’s share. HMLR wants to replace all of that with two fixed fees: one for a change of ownership where no money is paid, and one for registering a mortgage or transferring one when it is not lodged alongside a transfer or lease.
Its own evidence for why is blunt. In a call for evidence in 2024, almost 50% of the people who reported a problem said the primary cause was the complexity of calculating the fee. The amount is rarely in the documents lodged for registration, so a caseworker has to verify it by hand, which is also why the process cannot be automated.
The data consultation, run with MHCLG and Defra, is the wider one. It proposes a dataset of the owners of significant land holdings, free access for public sector bodies to every title, free access for everyone to commercially owned and significant holdings, and a route for researchers and journalists to reach all titles on a public interest test. It also floats powers to suppress information where there is evidence of a risk of harm.
What the Register Shows a Buyer Before an Offer
Underneath the policy is a document most foreign buyers never see until their lawyer sends it over. Buying a house in England or Wales means buying a history as much as a building, and the title register is the part of that history the state keeps. It records:
- who owns the land, and the type of ownership;
- rights of way across a courtyard or a shared passage;
- a covenant that stops a second dwelling on the plot;
- charges, including a mortgage that has to be cleared on completion.
Its title plan shows the general boundaries, which is a warning in itself, because general means indicative and not a survey.
Any of it can be inspected online for £7 a title, and an official copy bought the same way is the version used as evidence in a transaction. For an agent that is the cheapest piece of risk reduction in the file. Seven pounds against a reservation deposit is not a close call, and the register will show a charge, a restriction or a lease that the seller’s particulars left out. It will not tell you whether the roof leaks or whether the neighbour’s extension crosses the boundary, so it sits next to a survey rather than replacing one.
The data consultation is about that £7 and what sits behind it. Since 2016 HMLR has published ownership data free for the 16% of titles held by UK and non-UK companies, and it values the economic effect of those datasets at £77 million to £139 million a year in 2025 prices. The gap it wants to close is land: corporate titles are 16% of the register but about 30% of the land in England and Wales, and a significant holdings dataset would take coverage to roughly 21% of titles and 95% of land. HMLR puts the extra contribution at £22 million to £41 million a year.
What Registration Costs on a Purchase Today
The fee that lands on a purchase is Scale 1, and it is charged on the consideration, not on the mortgage. It is also charged on the VAT-inclusive figure, which catches commercial and mixed-use deals, and where the price is in euros the fee is assessed on the sterling equivalent. The bands below are the ones in force since 9 December 2024 under the Land Registration Fee Order 2024.
| Value or amount | Scale 1, portal, whole title | Scale 1, by post | Scale 2, portal, whole title | Scale 2, by post |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to £80,000 (Scale 2: 0 to £100,000) | £20 | £45 | £20 | £45 |
| £80,001 to £100,000 | £40 | £95 | £20 | £45 |
| £100,001 to £200,000 | £100 | £230 | £30 | £70 |
| £200,001 to £500,000 | £150 | £330 | £45 | £100 |
| £500,001 to £1,000,000 | £295 | £655 | £65 | £145 |
| £1,000,001 and over | £500 | £1,105 | £140 | £305 |
Read the Scale 1 column and the surprise is how small the number is. A £575,000 house registered through the portal costs £295, which is less than a decent survey and a long way below the stamp duty on the same purchase. Against property prices in England and Wales, that is a rounding error. Registration fees are not where a buyer’s budget breaks. It is where the paperwork breaks: the application is lodged by the conveyancer, and a fee calculated on the wrong figure produces a requisition, which is HMLR asking for more information while the clock stops.
Where the Fixed Fees Would Move the Bill
Scale 2 today runs from £20 to £305 across its five bands, and the proposal replaces that with two numbers that apply whatever the property is worth. HMLR is candid that this cuts both ways, and it publishes two worked examples. In the first, a property worth £310,000 with a £100,000 mortgage is transferred into joint names, giving a £105,000 share and a fee of £30 today. Under the proposal the fee would be set somewhere between £40 and £110. In the second, a homeowner borrows £250,000 against a finished house, pays £45 today, and would pay between £25 and £55.
So the shape of the change is clear even without a price list. Registering a mortgage gets cheaper or stays about the same, which matters to any buyer taking a loan against a property they already own, including one funded by releasing equity in a home abroad. Adding someone to a title gets more expensive, and that covers the cases agents see most: a couple buying as tenants in common and later changing the shares, a parent put on the title to help with a mortgage, and an inheritance settled by assent. For the property market as a whole the sums are noise, and the consultation says the final amounts depend on demand forecasts and policy decisions, so no number is fixed. Scale 1 is explicitly not on the table at this stage.
What an Estate Agent Should Do With This
Nothing here needs action before 22 December, but four things are worth building into how the file is prepared now. Most estate agents never calculate either fee themselves, because the conveyancer does, but the number still ends up in the client conversation.
- Order the title register before the offer, not after. At £7 it is cheap enough to do on any property a client is serious about, and it is the only document that reliably lists charges, restrictions and rights of way.
- Quote registration on the sterling equivalent and on the VAT-inclusive consideration. A euro price and a net price both give the wrong band, and the buyer pays the difference at the end of the process.
- Do not quote £30 for adding a co-owner any more. If the fixed fee lands mid-range the same application costs three times that, and the client will remember who gave the estimate.
- If a client wants to respond to the fee consultation, the deadline is 11:59pm on 22 December 2026, and the online survey is open to members of the public, not only to conveyancers and lenders.
For an agent the useful line is this: the register is a public document with a small price and a lot of information in it, and most of what is coming makes that information easier to reach, not harder. The billing change is narrower than the headlines around it suggest.
What Actually Changes for a Buyer, and When
Today, nothing. The Fee Order 2024 still applies, the £7 inspection fee still applies, and every figure in the table above is current law. The consultations gather evidence until 22 December, the government then publishes its response, and any change to the fees needs a new fee order before it takes effect. That is a 2027 story at the earliest.
What has changed is that HMLR has put its reasoning in public, including the admission that the current model is hard enough to calculate that nearly half the people who had a problem blamed the arithmetic. None of it is a signal about the UK housing market either way: a £25 swing in a mortgage registration fee does not move prices, and the consultation that touches purchases is the one that proposes nothing. For a buyer or an agent, the practical move is the same regardless: read the title before the offer, budget the fee on the right figure, and treat the register as a source rather than a formality at the end of the deal.
Questions Buyers Ask About the Land Register
Do the consultations change what I pay now?
No. Both are consultations, open until 22 December 2026, and the fee order in force is still the one from 2024. A new fee order has to be laid before any proposed number applies.
Will my purchase fee go up under the proposal?
The consultation does not touch Scale 1, which is the fee on a purchase for value. It covers Scale 2, which is transfers of equity, assents after a death and mortgage registration. It does ask whether Scale 1 should be simplified one day, but HMLR states that question is not a proposal.
Can I inspect a title register myself?
Yes. Any title can be inspected online for £7, and the same service sells an official copy, which is the version a lawyer or lender accepts as evidence. You need the title number or the address, and you do not have to be the owner.
Will ordinary homeowners’ details become public?
Under the proposal, not as a rule. Public access would cover datasets showing ownership across most land and free inspection of the more detailed title information for commercially owned and significant holdings, but the consultation says general public access would not extend to the majority of ordinary homeowners.
What does the register not tell me?
It does not describe condition, and the title plan shows general boundaries, which are indicative rather than surveyed. It also will not list everything a local authority knows, which is why it sits alongside a survey and the local searches.
