Charges have risen sharply. The average bill at the end of 2025 was 4.6% higher than a year earlier, and over a five-year period service charges have climbed 32.6%.
In 2020, leaseholders were paying £1,814 a year (£151.15 a month). By 2025, that figure had jumped to £2,405, an increase of nearly £600 a year.
Service charge growth has now outpaced general inflation across every major timeframe. Over the past year, charges rose 1.2 percentage points faster than CPI, which stood at 3.4%. Over five years, CPI increased 30.9%, compared with a 32.6% rise in service charges. And across the decade from 2016 to 2025, service charges climbed 55.6%, far exceeding CPI’s 39.8% increase.
London remains the most expensive region for leaseholders and has also seen the steepest rises. The average service charge in the capital has reached £2,801 a year (£233.45 a month), up 6.4% in the past 12 months, 41.2% over five years, and 64.5% over the last ten years.
Expensive charges in the capital largely reflect the prevalence of taller, amenity-rich buildings, which are more expensive to maintain and operate.
Throughout England and Wales, the average annual service charge for a one-bed flat now stands at £2,074 (£172.81 a month), a 3.3% rise on 2024.
A two-bed typically costs £2,463 a year (£205.28 a month), up 4.8% year-on-year.
For a three-bed, the average charge has climbed to £3,146 (£262.16 a month), passing the £3,000 threshold for the first time after a 5.7% annual increase.
During 2025, 37% of flats across England and Wales had a service charge exceeding 1% of their property value, up from 29% five years ago — a sign of how sharply these costs have grown relative to asset values.
Mortgage brokers are tightening their stance because some lenders now refuse to finance flats where annual service charges routinely exceed 1% of the property’s value for instance, a £4,000 charge on a £300,000 home.
That threshold is being breached more often: 14% of flats now carry charges above 2% of their value, and 6% exceed 3%, with these higher-burden properties concentrated in city-centre blocks.
When charges rise faster than values willing lenders shrink making it harder and often more expensive — for buyers to secure a mortgage on affected flats.
Last year, the typical flat had a service charge equal to 0.90% of its value, a ratio pushed up by both escalating charges and softening sales prices.
Flat values in many parts of England and Wales remain below their 2019, pre-pandemic levels, and nearly one in five sellers (19.9%) last year accepted a price lower than they originally paid. Over the same period, service charges have risen steadily.
Although service charges fund the upkeep of buildings with very different levels of amenities, higher costs can still weigh heavily on a flat’s ability to sell. In 2025, homes marketed with charges at or below 1% of their value were 50% more likely to secure a buyer than those where charges reached 2% or more.
The pool of low-charge flats is shrinking fast. Only 14% now carry a service charge of under £100 a month, down from 34% five years ago — a sharp contraction that underlines how quickly affordability has eroded.
Lower service charges are most common in older, low-rise blocks with few shared facilities, where running costs tend to be far lower than in newer, amenity-heavy developments.
Although there are clear regional patterns, the cheapest charges are still most often found in well-established 1970s and 1980s buildings that have proved relatively inexpensive to maintain over time.
Around 30% of flats in the North East continue to have service charges below £100 a month, followed by 28% in both the East Midlands and the South West, making these he regions where low-cost blocks remain most prevalent.