Moving home 'costs nearly £9,500'

While estate agents' charges of £3,027 have risen roughly in line with house prices, stamp duty has shot up from an average of £543 to £5,009.

Legal fees are put at £1,000 while removal costs are now £450 on average.

Back in 1996 stamp duty was levied at just 1% on properties sold for more than £60,000.

Many buyers, including most first-time ones, escaped paying the tax at all as the average house in the UK cost just £64,441, according to the Halifax bank's house price index.

Since then higher rates of duty have been introduced.

Properties worth over £250,000 are taxed at 3% and those over £500,000 at 4%.

With the average house price now standing at more than £200,000, the vast majority of homes in the UK attract the tax when they are bought, even though the 1% stamp duty charge now kicks in only once the house is worth £125,000.