I’m writing this from England, where last night’s post-dinner walk past the for sale sign shown here got me looking into the differences between buying a home in England versus back home in Oregon and the rest of the USA. It’s markedly different
Most of us assume buying a house is buying a house wherever you go. Find a place, make an offer, sign some papers, get the keys. The broad strokes rhyme. The mechanics, the protections, and the risks do not. Here are the six differences that stood out, and what each one says about how good we have it on the buyer’s side in Portland and Salem.
1. The deal stays loose until the very last minute
In England and Wales, an accepted offer is not a binding agreement. It is an intention. The real commitment happens weeks later at something called “exchange of contracts,” and until that moment either side can walk for any reason. Sellers do. A higher offer comes in and the seller takes it, even after you have paid for surveys and legal work. They call it gazumping (worth 72 points on triple word score in Scrabble). Buyers play the same game in reverse, dropping their price at the last second when the other party is too far in to say no. That one is called gazundering.
Compare that to Oregon. Once you and the seller sign the purchase agreement and your earnest money goes down, you are in a binding contract with clearly defined ways out. Your commitment ramps up gradually as you clear contingencies. The English buyer spends weeks exposed with no legal security, then flips to fully committed in a single instant at exchange. After that point there is no statutory cooling-off period at all. Back out and you typically forfeit a deposit of around ten percent of the purchase price, plus potential damages.
Two systems, two completely different risk curves. Ours protects the buyer earlier and more predictably.
2. No title insurance, and that changes the whole mindset
In the US, title insurance is standard. A title company researches the chain of ownership, and an insurer stands behind the result. If something surfaces later, a forgotten lien, a missed heir, a bad easement, the policy is there. That backstop is part of why American deals push confidently toward closing.
England leans on its Land Registry instead. Ownership is recorded publicly and the register itself provides the certainty. There is no broad title policy wrapping the transaction. So the buyer’s solicitor does the heavy lifting through searches, and odd issues get handled with narrow indemnity policies rather than one comprehensive contract.
Worth saying clearly: no title insurance does not mean less safe. The safety just comes from process and public registration rather than an insurance contract. Different philosophy, same goal.
3. There is no seller disclosure form
This one surprised me most. Oregon buyers get a Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement. The seller has to tell you in writing about the roof, the HVAC, water intrusion, known defects, and more, and there is real liability for hiding things. That form is a baseline of information you can count on before you ever hire an inspector.
England has no equivalent. Consumer protection law gives buyers some recourse if they were actively misled, but there is no standardized form where the seller volunteers what they know. The burden shifts to you, and specifically to your survey. The buyer commissions a survey and chooses the depth: a basic valuation, a mid-level homebuyer report, or a full building survey. Pick too light a survey to save money and you are buying with less information than an Oregon buyer gets for free on a disclosure form.
So in England the survey is both your inspection and a big chunk of your disclosure rolled into one. Choosing the right level is a strategic risk decision, not a box to tick. It made me appreciate how much our inspection-contingency culture in Oregon rests on a foundation of mandatory disclosure.
4. Mortgages reprice, again and again
The 30-year fixed mortgage is so normal to Americans that we forget how unusual it is globally. It barely exists in England. The typical buyer here takes a two-year or five-year fixed rate, and when that term ends the loan reverts to the lender’s standard variable rate, which is usually higher. So you refinance, or you absorb the jump.
The practical effect is that an English household’s housing payment is likely to reset several times over the years they own the home. Their budget is exposed to whatever the Bank of England does next. A Portland buyer who locks a 30-year fixed has handed that long-term rate risk to the lender and can plan a decade ahead without flinching at every policy meeting.
If you have ever grumbled about American mortgage paperwork, this is the trade. We do more work up front to get certainty that lasts.
5. A transfer tax we mostly do not have
England charges Stamp Duty Land Tax on purchases, and it adds up fast. As of 2026, a main-residence buyer pays nothing on the first £125,000, then 2 percent on the portion up to £250,000, 5 percent up to £925,000, 10 percent up to £1.5 million, and 12 percent above that. First-time buyers get a break, paying nothing up to £300,000. Buy a second home or an investment property and you pay an extra 5 percent on every band. (Rates change, so anyone transacting should confirm the current schedule.)
Oregon, by contrast, has essentially no real estate transfer tax. Washington County levies a tiny one and that is it. For a buyer here, a stamp-duty-style tax would be a significant one-time cost stacked onto an already expensive purchase. It is the kind of thing you only notice when you see a system that does it differently. England taxes applied to Oregon: $20,000 for the first time and main residence buyer and $50,000 for the second home or investor on a $600,000 purchase! Washington County levies $600.
6. Chains, fees, and the missing buyer’s advocate
Two last things that travel together. First, English transactions often link into a “chain.” Your purchase depends on your buyer’s sale, which depends on their buyer, and so on down the line. If one link fails to exchange, the whole chain can collapse. That is why a buyer with “no chain,” a first-timer or a cash buyer, has a real advantage in negotiations here that has nothing to do with price.
Second, the fee structure. English estate agents typically charge the seller around one to two percent of the sale price. That lower fee helps explain why buyer representation is weak here. There simply is not much budget for someone to advocate for the buyer, so buyers largely deal directly with the seller’s agent and look out for themselves.
That is the part I keep coming back to. In Oregon you have someone whose job is to represent you, the buyer, to read the disclosures, recommend the right inspections, interpret the market, and negotiate the repairs. Here, much of that falls on you. A lower-fee, seller-oriented system with fragile chains produces more transactional behavior and far less expectation that anyone is in your corner.
What it means for you?
Probably absolutely nothing. I moved from England to Portland more than 50 years ago. In twenty-plus years of real estate, a handful of clients have done the same. For the majority of our readers, it provides context of our method, for better or worse. The American system front-loads protection for buyers in ways that are easy to take for granted: a binding contract with clear exits, title insurance, mandatory seller disclosures, the long-term certainty of a fixed mortgage, and a real advocate on your side of the table.
Thinking about a move, here or abroad? Reach out before you’re ready. The earlier we talk, the more options you have.
Sources for the England figures: Stamp Duty Land Tax rates per GOV.UK and UK conveyancing guides; gazumping and exchange-of-contracts practice per HomeOwners Alliance and Co-op Legal Services. Stamp duty rates are current as of 2026 and subject to change.