When people picture the cost of moving, they picture rent or a mortgage. But the bills that actually decide whether a place is affordable are the ones bolted on underneath, and they're the ones that catch first-time movers out. Add them up and they can run to several hundred pounds a month before you've bought a single coffee.
Here's what to budget for, and why each one swings by where you live.
Council tax
Set by your billing authority, council tax varies by hundreds of pounds a year between areas, and within an area it depends on your property's band. We headline Band D and show the full A to H table on every area page, normalised to a true monthly figure (annual divided by 12).
Two things people miss: a 25% single-person discount if you live alone, and that many councils bill over 10 instalments, so the "monthly" amount on a bill can look higher than the real yearly cost spread over 12.
Energy
Gas and electricity are set by the regional price cap, so the same usage costs slightly different amounts in different parts of the country. Our figures track the cap using a typical household's consumption. Yours will move with how much you actually use and the tariff you're on.
Water
Water and sewerage is billed by regional companies, so your supplier (and so your bill) is decided by where the property sits, not by you choosing a provider. It's a smaller line than energy, but it's fixed by geography and worth knowing before you move.
Broadband
Broadband pricing is fairly consistent nationally, but availability isn't: gigabit and superfast coverage vary street to street. We show typical package pricing alongside the real coverage figures for the area.
Insurance
Home and contents (and car) insurance varies by region and risk. We badge these as indicative regional averages: useful for budgeting, but always get a real quote for your address.
See the whole picture for one place
Rather than guess, look at a real all-in total, every line sourced and dated:
Estimates, not quotes. We show our sources.
Every figure on an area page carries its source and the date it represents. They're estimates for budgeting, not quotes for your exact property.
The headline rent number is the easy part. Budget for the five bills above and you'll know what a move actually costs. No surprises.