The average leaseholder in England and Wales pays a service charge of £2,405 a year or £200.42 a month.  

This marks the first time the average service charge has passed £200 per month according to the agency conducting the analysis, Hamptons.

The average service charge ended 2025 4.6% higher than at the end of 2024.  

Over the last five years, the average charge has risen 32.6%.

It increased from £1,814 a year (£151.15 a month) in 2020 to £2,405 a year (£200.42 a month) in 2025.

These rises have outstripped broader inflation.  

Over the last year, service charges increased 1.2 percentage points faster than the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which came in at 3.4% over the same period.  

Meanwhile, over the last five years, CPI rose 30.9% (service charges +32.6%).

And over the last decade (2016-2025), service charges increased 55.6%, far outstripping CPI (39.8%).

London has long had the highest service charges in the country and has also seen the largest increases in recent years.  

Here, the average charge stands at £2,801 (£233.45 a month), up 6.4% year-on-year, 41.2% over the last five years and 64.5% over the last decade.  

Higher charges in the capital typically reflect taller buildings, which offer more amenities and generally cost more to run.

Nationally, the average annual service charge of a one-bed flat is £2,074 (or £172.81 a month), up 3.3% on 2024.  

The average two-bed comes with an annual charge of £2,463 (£205.28 a month), up 4.8% on last year.  

And the average three-bed carries a charge of £3,146 (or £262.16 a month), passing the £3,000 a year mark for the first time and up 5.7% year-on-year.

Last year, 37% of flats across England and Wales had a service charge exceeding 1% of their value, up from 29% five years ago.  

Hamptons says this matters because some mortgage lenders have tightened underwriting criteria to exclude flats where service charges routinely exceed 1% of their value (for example, a £4,000 annual service charge on a £300,000 flat).

Meanwhile, 14% of flats had a charge exceeding 2% of their value, and 6% had a charge exceeding 3%.  These were disproportionately city centre flats.  

With a more limited pool of lenders to choose from, borrowing to buy a flat with a higher service charge can become harder and more expensive.  

Last year, the average flat had a service charge equal to 0.90% of its value.

The increase in service charges as a share of value reflects both rising service charges and falling sales values.  

In much of the country, flat prices typically sit below their pre-pandemic 2019 levels, with one in five (19.9%) flat sellers in England & Wales last year achieving less than they originally paid.  

Meanwhile, service charges have risen consistently over the same period.

While service charges cover apartment blocks with a wide range of amenities, higher charges can hit saleability.  

Last year, flats marketed with a service charge at or below 1% of their value were 50% more likely to find a buyer than those with charges equating to 2% or more.

The number of flats with low service charges has fallen sharply.  Just 14% of flats now come with a service charge of less than £100 per month, a figure which has halved from 34% five years ago. 

Typically, these are found in low-rise blocks with minimal amenities.              

While there is a regional element to lower service charges, the cheapest bills are often found in low-rise 1970s and 1980s builds that have stood the test of time.  

Some 30% of flats in the North East still have a service charge of under £100 a month, followed by 28% in both the East Midlands and the South West.