Buy the average home in England and Wales and a 10% deposit comes to £29,500. Buy in Sunderland and the same 10% is about £15,500; buy across London and it is closer to £52,750 — and in the priciest borough, Kensington and Chelsea, a 10% deposit on the typical sale tops £115,000. The percentage is identical. The cash is not.
That gap is the single most useful thing to understand about a deposit: it is a slice of the purchase price, so what you need depends entirely on where — and what — you buy. Across 737,746 residential sales logged by HM Land Registry in 2025, the median price in England and Wales was £295,000 (the mean, pulled up by the top of the market, was £368,665). The figures below build out from real sale prices in each area, so they reflect what people actually paid in 2025 rather than asking prices.
The short version
A deposit is the part of the price you pay from your own funds. The mortgage covers the rest. Lenders describe the same thing from the other side as loan-to-value (LTV) — the loan as a percentage of the price. The two always add up to 100%:
| Deposit | Loan-to-value | On the £295,000 median |
|---|---|---|
| 5% | 95% LTV | £14,750 deposit |
| 10% | 90% LTV | £29,500 deposit |
| 15% | 85% LTV | £44,250 deposit |
| 25% | 75% LTV | £73,750 deposit |
| 40% | 60% LTV | £118,000 deposit |
UK lenders commonly accept deposits from around 5% upwards, though the products, rates and checks attached to each LTV band vary by lender and applicant. The percentage you put down is only half the story — the other half is what that percentage equals in pounds where you are buying.
What a deposit actually costs, by city
The table below shows the median 2025 sale price for a set of English cities (HM Land Registry, residential sales), with the 5%, 10% and 25% deposit each implies. Inner-London boroughs are included to show the top of the range.
| Area | Median price (2025) | 5% deposit | 10% deposit | 25% deposit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunderland | £155,000 | £7,750 | £15,500 | £38,750 |
| Liverpool | £181,000 | £9,050 | £18,100 | £45,250 |
| Nottingham | £200,000 | £10,000 | £20,000 | £50,000 |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | £205,000 | £10,250 | £20,500 | £51,250 |
| Sheffield | £217,500 | £10,875 | £21,750 | £54,375 |
| Birmingham | £237,000 | £11,850 | £23,700 | £59,250 |
| Leeds | £247,000 | £12,350 | £24,700 | £61,750 |
| Manchester | £250,000 | £12,500 | £25,000 | £62,500 |
| England & Wales (median) | £295,000 | £14,750 | £29,500 | £73,750 |
| London (all boroughs) | £527,500 | £26,375 | £52,750 | £131,875 |
| Westminster | £865,000 | £43,250 | £86,500 | £216,250 |
| Kensington & Chelsea | £1,150,000 | £57,500 | £115,000 | £287,500 |
A 10% deposit runs from about £15,500 in Sunderland to £52,750 across London as a whole — roughly 3.4 times as much for the same percentage — and to £115,000 in Kensington and Chelsea, about 7.4 times the Sunderland figure. This is why a national "how much deposit do I need" answer is close to meaningless: the only number that matters is 5–25% of the price in the specific area you are searching.
How deposit size connects to the rate
Lenders group mortgages into LTV bands and price each band separately. A larger deposit produces a lower LTV, which lenders typically treat as lower risk and price at a lower rate; a smaller deposit (higher LTV) usually sits in a higher-priced band. The exact rate at each band depends on the lender, the product, the term and the applicant's circumstances.
For a sense of the current level, the Bank of England's quoted rate for a new five-year fixed mortgage at 75% LTV was 4.32% as of 1 April 2026 — that is, the advertised rate for a borrower putting down a 25% deposit. The Bank publishes this series monthly; it is an average of rates advertised by UK lenders, not a quote for any individual.
A worked example at the median
Take the £295,000 England-and-Wales median, a 25% deposit and a 25-year term:
- Deposit (25%): £73,750
- Loan (75% LTV): £221,250
- At 4.32% over 25 years: approximately £1,207 a month
Your own figure will move with the rate, the term and the deposit you put down — a smaller deposit means a larger loan and, usually, a higher rate, so the monthly cost rises on both counts. You can change the price, deposit, rate and term and see the effect on the mortgage repayment calculator, or work back from your income to a borrowing figure with the mortgage affordability calculator. For a fuller picture of monthly cost at a similar loan size, see the breakdown in the monthly cost of a £250,000 mortgage.
The deposit is not your only upfront cost
The deposit sits alongside, not instead of, the tax and fees due on completion. On a £295,000 purchase in England, a home mover pays £4,750 in Stamp Duty Land Tax — 2% on the slice from £125,000 to £250,000 plus 5% on the slice from £250,000 to £295,000, an effective rate of 1.61% (HMRC rates, current at 30 June 2026). A first-time buyer buying their main residence pays £0, because the price is below the £300,000 first-time-buyer threshold. Legal and survey fees come on top of both.
That distinction matters when you size your cash. A first-time buyer at the median needs the deposit plus fees; a mover at the same price needs the deposit, the fees and £4,750 of tax. The mechanics of who qualifies for the first-time-buyer rate are set out in the guide to first-time buyer stamp duty relief, and the full set of completion-day line items is laid out in the true cost of buying a £300,000 home.
Picture your own number
Because the deposit is a percentage of price, the fastest way to size it is to start from real local prices rather than a national average. Enter a postcode on Homecost — for example the true cost view for a central Manchester postcode — to see recent sale prices on the street, then take 5%, 10% or 25% of the figure that matches what you are looking at. More guides on the costs of buying are gathered under the buyer guides section.
These figures are general information, not financial advice, and individual lender criteria vary widely. Speak to a qualified mortgage adviser before acting.
Price figures are drawn from 737,746 HM Land Registry residential transactions in 2025 (England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland use separate registries). Mortgage rate from the Bank of England quoted-rates series; stamp duty from HMRC rates current at 30 June 2026.