What it costs to live there
A listing shows the price. It rarely shows the bills that come with the keys. For any UK address the report puts three of them next to the price, each from the body that publishes it: the council tax bill for every band at that council, the energy costs estimated on the home's EPC, and whether the home is freehold or leasehold. The fourth, the estate charge on a managed development, has no official source at all, and this page says what to do about that.
Pick up where you left off
Kept on this device only.
Council tax: the same Band D home, council by council
Band D for 2026-27 as published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Table 10, 2026-27), including precepts. Wales (22 councils) and Scotland (32 councils) are held too and appear on their own reports; the ranking below is England.
| Cheapest twenty | Band D, 2026-27 |
|---|---|
| Wandsworth | £1,028 |
| Westminster | £1,050 |
| City of London | £1,330 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | £1,520 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | £1,667 |
| Tower Hamlets | £1,838 |
| Newham | £1,944 |
| Windsor and Maidenhead | £1,953 |
| Southwark | £1,967 |
| Hillingdon | £2,045 |
| Lambeth | £2,047 |
| Isles of Scilly | £2,048 |
| Hackney | £2,060 |
| Greenwich | £2,108 |
| Islington | £2,108 |
| Barnet | £2,133 |
| Ealing | £2,139 |
| Bromley | £2,140 |
| Dudley | £2,145 |
| Merton | £2,147 |
| Dearest twenty | Band D, 2026-27 |
|---|---|
| Dorset | £2,765 |
| Lewes | £2,756 |
| Nottingham | £2,755 |
| Rutland | £2,738 |
| Wealden | £2,728 |
| Gateshead | £2,716 |
| Bristol | £2,714 |
| West Devon | £2,705 |
| Rother | £2,701 |
| Newark and Sherwood | £2,682 |
| Oxford | £2,678 |
| Hastings | £2,677 |
| Liverpool | £2,674 |
| Mid Devon | £2,656 |
| Eastbourne | £2,654 |
| Bassetlaw | £2,645 |
| Rushcliffe | £2,643 |
| Teignbridge | £2,643 |
| North Devon | £2,642 |
| Pendle | £2,640 |
Every council in England, Wales and Scotland, sortable → The band is the home's, not the council's: the report shows all eight (nine in Wales) at the address's council, and the home's own band is on its council tax bill, free to look up at gov.uk/council-tax-bands. Bands are fixed fractions of Band D, from six ninths for Band A to eighteen ninths for Band H.
The bills above are the full bill for the band, which is what MHCLG publishes. Most households pay it; a good many do not.
- One adult living alone pays 25% less.
- A home where every resident is disregarded, a full-time student, under 18, an apprentice, a live-in carer or severely mentally impaired, pays 50% less or nothing at all, depending on who they are.
- A home adapted for a disabled resident is charged at the band below.
- Low-income households can apply for Council Tax Reduction, which each council sets for itself.
Who qualifies is set in law, not by us, and what a given household pays depends on who lives there, so no discount is applied to any figure on this site. The rules are at gov.uk, and your council applies them.
Energy: what the EPC says the home costs to run
Every EPC carries the assessor's estimate of yearly heating, hot water and lighting costs, and what they would fall to after the recommended improvements. The report shows both figures for the address's most recent certificate, as the EPC Register publishes them. They are standardised estimates from the building, not a household's bills, and they are the only like-for-like energy figure that exists for every home in England and Wales.
Tenure: freehold, leasehold, and what comes with it
HM Land Registry records whether each sale was freehold or leasehold, and the report says which. A leasehold home carries ground rent and a service charge set by the freeholder or its agent; those figures are in the lease and the seller's information form, not in any public register, so the report tells you to ask for them rather than guessing.
Estate charges: the running cost no official source publishes
On a development where the council has not adopted the roads, lighting or open space, homeowners pay a private management company for their upkeep on top of full council tax, often for ever, with no cap and, until the 2024 Act takes effect, no right to challenge it. There is no register of what each estate pays. Estate charges explained: how common they are, what they cover, your rights in 2026, and the twelve questions to ask before you buy →