The Land Registry, the governmental body, decided to increase the land registration fees first time since 1993. It is claimed that the increase is due to the downturn of the property market.

Effective from 06/07/2009, the Land Registry had enforced an increase in the new land registration fees since 1993 - claiming that the downturn of the property market and the recession of the economic climate had caused a heavy fall and unsustainable reduction in the fee income of the organisation. The governmental body maintains a record and guarantee the ownership of all the domestic and commercial properties in the UK - in order to cover the operation costs; an increase in fees is inevitable.

The new registration fee order applies to all the scale and fixed fees payable on substantive applications. For the lower end, property sold for £50,000 or under would be charged £50 for the registration fee - which is up by £10; on the other end, property sale worth more than £1 million would be charged for £920 (that is up by £220).

Here are the features and benefits of the registry:

1. To find out who owns the land
2. To find out any mortgage or legal restrictions applies on the property
3. To find out the price of the property when it was last sold

Even though there is an increase on the land registration fees, the governmental body is still offering up to 25% reduction on the fees for voluntary first registration. With the reduction, the new fee for property sale of up to £50,000 would be £40 (up from £30); whilst, properties worth more than £1 million would be charged for £690 increased from £525. Click here for detailed new fee order

Not only does the Land Registry increase the land registration fee, the organisation also increases the fees for inspection, official copy and searches from £6 to £8.

Many home buyers do not recognise the large sum of the associated fees - such as stamp duty, land registration fee, solicitor fees, etc. - they have to pay when purchasing a property. The rise in the land registration fees came into force yesterday (6^th July 2009) under the economic climate implies that the sales and purchases of a property would be slightly more expensive. Therefore, home buyers would also have to take this into account when buying a property at this moment.