The new Land Registration Fee Order was laid on Friday 27 July and is due to come into force on Monday 22 October 2012. Scale fees have reduced by £10 along with most fixed fees for registration while fees for information services have reduced by £1.
Heather Foster, Land Registry's finance director, said: "In lowering our fees, we are reducing property market transaction costs and so assisting with economic growth. The efficiency savings we have made as a result of a major restructuring programme mean property search and registration costs will be cut for our customers.
"The new Fee Order allows us to pass on savings in a full year of £33 million in the form of lower fees - for example, the fee for registration of an average-priced property will fall from £200 to £190, an online copy of a register will be £3 instead of £4 and the fee for registering a £50,001 to £80,000 property will drop by 12.5%."
As a government agency with trading fund status, Land Registry is obliged to cover its operating costs from fee income. Land Registry fees are based on the volume of applications received, the value of property and internal overheads. Although fees have been reduced, the current volume of applications is still well below the level of the years preceding the property market crash.
