How much do leaseholders in each region of England pay in service charges?
By Synclair · Updated 8 October 2026
In 2023-24, owner-occupier leaseholders in England who pay a service charge reported a median of £1,375 a year to the English Housing Survey: £1,500 for a flat and £300 for a house. The English Housing Survey's 2023-24 median for owner-occupier leaseholders of flats in London who pay a service charge was £1,865 a year, the highest of any region; in the rest of England it was £1,300. These are amounts leaseholders reported, not figures taken from accounts, and each is a reference point, not a fair price for any particular building.
What do leaseholders of flats pay in each region?
Medians for 2023-24, for owner-occupier leaseholders of flats in England who pay a service charge. The sample is the number of those leaseholders in the survey that each figure rests on.
| Region | Median a year | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| North East | £1,656 — indicative only | 13 |
| North West | £1,116 | 27 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | £840 — indicative only | 23 |
| East Midlands | £800 — indicative only | 15 |
| West Midlands | £968 | 27 |
| East of England | £1,300 | 50 |
| London | £1,865 | 142 |
| South East | £1,680 | 104 |
| South West | £1,200 | 56 |
| England, excluding London | £1,300 | 315 |
| England | £1,500 | 457 |
What do leaseholders of houses pay in each region?
Medians for 2023-24, for owner-occupier leaseholders of houses in England who pay a service charge. Fewer leasehold houses than flats carry a service charge, so every regional figure here rests on fewer than twenty leaseholders.
| Region | Median a year | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| North East | not published | 4 |
| North West | £200 | 19 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | not published | 4 |
| East Midlands | not published | 3 |
| West Midlands | £600 | 5 |
| East of England | £305 | 9 |
| London | £2,220 | 8 |
| South East | £600 | 19 |
| South West | £316 | 12 |
| England, excluding London | £300 | 75 |
| England | £300 | 83 |
What do leaseholders pay in each region, flats and houses together?
Medians for 2023-24, for owner-occupier leaseholders in England who pay a service charge: flats and houses together, with the few homes that are neither.
| Region | Median a year | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| North East | £300 — indicative only | 17 |
| North West | £500 | 47 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | £840 — indicative only | 28 |
| East Midlands | £800 — indicative only | 18 |
| West Midlands | £960 | 32 |
| East of England | £1,300 | 59 |
| London | £1,920 | 150 |
| South East | £1,599 | 124 |
| South West | £1,020 | 68 |
| England, excluding London | £1,200 | 393 |
| England | £1,375 | 543 |
Why does this page show medians?
The median is the middle figure: half of the leaseholders the survey represents reported paying more, and half less. The survey publishes a mean as well, and this page leaves it out, following the publisher's own note on its figures for service charges over time: "The median is the more reliable indicator of the overall trend as the mean can be impacted by outliers in a relatively small sample."
Which figures should be read with care?
The publisher marks the figures for the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber and the East Midlands as indicative only. The tables mark them so.
Where fewer than five leaseholders in the sample answered, the survey publishes no figure, to protect the people surveyed. The tables show those as not published.
Small samples. Each figure's sample is shown beside it.
They are amounts leaseholders reported, not amounts taken from accounts. The survey's own report notes that "some leaseholders do not know what ground rent is, or confuse it with their service charge."
Flats and houses do not add up to all. The few homes that are neither are left out of the tables for flats and for houses, and counted in the table for all leaseholders.
Whose charges are these figures?
The survey interviews the households living in the homes it samples. So its figures on service charges come from owner-occupiers: leaseholders who own the flat or house they live in, shared owners among them. Where a leasehold home is let, the household living there is renting it, and the leaseholder who owns it is not asked about its service charge. If you let your home, these figures are still a reference point; they were reported by leaseholders who live in theirs.
Which year do the figures describe?
The regional figures are for 2023-24. For England as a whole, the survey has since published a median of £1,700 for 2024-25, for owner-occupier leaseholders who pay a service charge, from a sample of 567. This page does not set it beside the regional figures.
Do these figures describe your home?
Only if it is in England. The English Housing Survey covers England alone, so these figures say nothing about homes in Wales or Scotland.
Only if you hold a lease. If you own your house freehold and pay an estate charge, these figures do not describe it; estate management charges on a freehold house covers that charge.
Only against your own share. Each figure is an amount a year for one household. Set your own share beside it, never the building's total; how the building's total becomes your share shows how to find it.
Never as a fair price. A building with a lift, a concierge or large grounds costs more to run than one without. A charge above the median for your region is not by itself evidence that anything is wrong. It is a reason to read the year-end accounts.
Should you stop paying while you query a charge?
Do not stop paying while you query a charge.
Questioning whether a charge is fair and withholding payment are two different things. Under a lease, arrears can put your home at risk, and the sums involved do not have to be large. Keep paying, and put your questions in writing.
What does Synclair do?
Synclair explains each line of your service charge that your documents show, and compares it with published figures where they exist. Add earlier years and it shows how each line has changed. Anything you report about the building stays on record with its date. When something is worth raising, Synclair can draft a letter for you to check and send in your own name, and you can then record the reply and the outcome.
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Sources
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, English Housing Survey 2023 to 2024: leasehold experience fact sheet, Annex Table 1.4, 17 July 2025 — gov.uk. © Crown copyright 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, English Housing Survey data on leaseholders, table FT2234, updated 9 July 2026 — gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Figures checked 8 October 2026.