It costs £100 to set up a limited company in the UK if you register online with Companies House, or £124 by paper. That has been the fee since 1 February 2026. Formation agents charge about £115 to £270 in total, and accountants £280 to £700. Running a limited company then costs about £700 to £2,000 a year, mostly in accountancy fees.
The £100 Companies House fee is the statutory minimum, and nobody can charge you less. Every other quote you see, whether £115, £250 or £700, is that £100 plus someone’s service fee.
Your broker has told you the mortgage product you want is only available to a limited company, the cost of setting up a company is the first number you need. The gap between those quotes is where property investors lose money, in both directions. Pay nothing, and you may register the wrong SIC code, which is one of the most common reasons a buy-to-let mortgage application gets rejected at the underwriting stage. Pay for a package, and you may buy an address service you don’t need.
This article sets out what the £100 buys, what the three formation routes actually cost in year one, and which ongoing costs begin the moment the company is formed. It does not cover the tax analysis of whether to hold property personally or through a company, or the Stamp Duty Land Tax and Capital Gains Tax consequences of moving existing properties into a company. Those are separate questions with far larger numbers attached.
Key Takeaways
It costs £100 to set up a limited company digitally with Companies House, or £124 by paper, following the fee increase on 1 February 2026
The £100 fee is the only compulsory cost of incorporation; everything else is optional and market-priced
Formation agent packages typically land between £115 and £250 in year one, including the Companies House fee
The annual confirmation statement rose from £34 to £50 on 1 February 2026
Accounts and a corporation tax return are the largest ongoing limited company costs, typically £600 to £1,500 plus VAT a year.
Every director and person with significant control must now verify their identity with Companies House
Registering a separate SPV for each property divides your corporation tax thresholds between them and can cost thousands a year
A holding company lets post-tax profit move between your companies for reinvestment, but it narrows the buy-to-let lender panel, so decide before you incorporate.
Companies House Fees After the February 2026 Increase
Companies House raised its fees on 1 February 2026, the second increase in under two years. The digital incorporation fee doubled. Most cost articles still published online quote the old £50 figure, so check the date on anything you read.
| Transaction | Channel | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Incorporation | Digital | £100 |
| Incorporation (same day) | Digital, software only | £156 |
| Incorporation | Paper | £124 |
| Confirmation statement | Digital | £50 |
| Confirmation statement | Paper | £110 |
| Registration of a charge | Digital | £14 |
| Change of name (same day) | Digital | £85 |
| Voluntary strike off | Digital | £13 |
| Voluntary strike off | Paper | £18 |
Two of these are worth pausing on.
- Registration of a charge (£14). When your lender registers its security over the property, that filing carries its own fee.
- Voluntary strike off (£13). This fee went down. It matters if you form an SPV for a purchase that then falls through.
Companies House fees do not carry VAT. Agent and accountant fees do, at 20%, so a £150 quoted fee is £180 out of your account.
What the £100 Actually Buys
The fee covers registering the company itself. Companies House checks that the name is available, records your directors, shareholders and registered office, and issues the certificate of incorporation.
It does not cover:
- a registered office address or a director’s service address
- a business bank account
- HMRC registration
- Bespoke articles of association
- Advice on share structure, SIC code or group structure
Every one of those is either free if you do it yourself or chargeable if someone does it for you.
How Much Does It Cost to Set Up a Limited Company by Each Route?
There are three ways to form a company. The cost of setting up a limited company ranges from £100 to about £700 in year one, depending on how much advice you buy.
Route One: Registering Directly with Companies House
What You Pay
£100, paid by card at the point of filing. Nothing else, as long as you use your own address as the registered office.
What You Get
A company, usually within 24 hours. You choose the name, SIC code, share structure, and addresses. You use the model articles of association, which are the statutory default and are adequate for a single-director, single-shareholder SPV.
Who This Route Suits
An investor buying one property in their own name as sole director and shareholder, who is comfortable with their home address appearing on the public register and who already knows which SIC code they need.
The risk is not the filing. It is the decisions inside the filing. Three of them cost money to unwind later:
- The SIC code – SIC code for a standard buy-to-let SPV, 68209 (other letting and operating of own or leased real estate) is the code lenders expect. Developers buying to refurbish and sell usually need 68100 (for buying and selling their own real estate). If you register the wrong trading code, your mortgage application can be declined before a human reads it.
- The share structure – One ordinary share issued to one person is the default. If you later want to bring in a spouse and pay dividends in different proportions, you need alphabet share classes, and creating them after the fact can have tax consequences that did not exist at formation.
- The registered office – It is published on the Companies House register and is permanently searchable. Using your home address is free and lawful, and thousands of landlords do it. It also puts your home address in front of anyone who looks up the company, including tenants.
Route Two: Setting Up Through a Formation Agent
Typical Cost
Formation agents sell the £100 filing with a margin and a bundle. Entry-level packages sit at a few pounds plus the Companies House fee, and comprehensive packages run to around £140 plus VAT on the agent’s element. Property-specific SPV formation services, including us at Property SPV, start from around £12 plus the Companies House fee.
Realistic year-one range including the statutory fee: £113 to £250.
What You Get
Faster filing through Companies House software, a company formed within hours rather than a day, and typically some combination of: a registered office address, a director’s service address, printed certificates and share certificates, a business bank account referral, and HMRC registration.
Why Property Investors Choose an Agent
The honest answer is not speed. It is that a property-focused agent defaults you into the right SIC code and a share structure that works for a buy-to-let company, without you having to know that 68209 exists. For a first-time investor, the difference between a £100 DIY filing and a £150 package is roughly one hour of your time and the removal of a mortgage-rejection risk.
The case against is simple: if you already know what you are doing, you are paying to have a form typed.
Route Three: Forming an SPV Through an Accountant
Typical Cost
Accountant-led formation generally runs from £150 to £500 plus VAT, plus the £100 Companies House fee, for a year-one total of roughly £280 to £700.
That is a large multiple of the DIY route, and it is only justified if you are buying the advice rather than the filing.
Pros and Cons for Property Investors
Where it earns its fee. Share classes structured for a spouse or for future succession. A view on whether one SPV or several is right for your portfolio plan. Correct HMRC registrations from the outset. A director’s loan account set up properly on day one, so that the money you lend the company to fund the deposit can be drawn back out tax-free later. That last point alone is worth more than the fee to most investors, and it is the one most commonly overlooked in DIY formations.
Where it does not. If you are buying one flat, in your sole name, with no spouse to involve and no plan to add properties, an accountant’s formation fee buys you very little that a £150 agent package does not.
What Are the Ongoing Limited Company Costs?
The incorporation fee is the smallest cost you will pay. Ongoing ltd company costs start as soon as the company is formed, whether or not it owns property, and typically total £700 to £2,000 a year.
| Ongoing cost | Typical annual figure |
|---|---|
| Confirmation statement | £50 |
| Registered office service | £39 to £120 |
| Director's service address | £39 to £60 |
| Accounts and CT600 | £600 to £1,500 + VAT |
| Bookkeeping software | £60 to £300 |
| Business bank account | £0 to £180 |
Accounts and corporation tax return
Annual accounts and a CT600 corporation tax return are compulsory from the first accounting period, dormant or not. Budget £600 to £1,500 plus VAT for a single-property SPV, rising with the number of properties and the quality of your bookkeeping. This is the highest recurring cost of company ownership, and it dwarfs the formation fee.
Confirmation statement
£50 a year, filed digitally. It rose from £34 on 1 February 2026. It is compulsory; it is due even if the company is dormant, and failing to file it is a criminal offence that can lead to strike-off.
Identity verification
Since 18 November 2025, every director and person with significant control must verify their identity with Companies House under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. New directors need a personal code at incorporation, and new PSCs must supply theirs within 14 days. Verification is free through GOV.UK One Login and takes most people under half an hour. An Authorised Corporate Service Provider can do it for a fee.
Address services
£39 to £120 per service per year. The only reason to buy one is to keep your home address off the public register. The registered office must be an address where documents can be delivered and acknowledged.
Banking and insurance
Business accounts for small companies range from free to about £15 a month, and some lenders require one before releasing funds. Once the company owns the property, you need landlord insurance in its name. The premium is generally deductible against the company’s rental income.
Property SPV Package Pricing Compared
| DIY at Companies House | Formation agent | Accountant-led | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Companies House fee | £100 | £100 (usually included) | £100 |
| Service fee | £0 | £13 to £140 + VAT | £150 to £500 + VAT |
| Typical year-one total | £100 | £113 to £250 | £280 to £700 |
| Speed | Within 24 hours | Within hours | 2 to 5 working days |
| SIC code guidance | None | Usually, | Yes |
| Share structure advice | None | No | Yes |
| Registered office included | No | Often, first year | Usually, |
| Director's loan account set up. | No | No | Yes |
Which Formation Choices Affect Your Mortgage?
The cost to set up a company is not the reason to care about how it’s set up. The mortgage is. A rejected application means a lost valuation fee, a lost broker fee and, on a purchase with a deadline, a lost property.
Buy-to-let lenders in the limited company market generally look for four things, and each is fixed at formation:
- A non-trading SPV, not a general company – Most lenders in this market will only lend to a company whose sole activity is holding and letting property. A company with trading activity alongside the property, or a dormant company you already own and want to reuse, could be declined by much of the market.
- An accepted SIC code –68209 and 68100 are the codes underwriters expect. This is checked automatically at the application stage on many lender systems.
- A clean, recently formed company –A newly incorporated SPV with no filing history is easier to underwrite than an older company with dormant accounts and a history the lender has to explain. This is one of the few situations where forming a fresh company is cheaper than reusing an old one.
- Personal guarantees from the directors –Limited liability does not survive contact with a buy-to-let lender. Expect to give a personal guarantee, which means the company structure protects you from tenant and third-party claims but not from the mortgage itself.
One structural point matters more than the rest and is set at formation: a corporate shareholder narrows your lender panel. If you put a holding company above the SPV, some lenders will decline, and others will require the parent to provide its own guarantee and full disclosure of the group. If a group structure is part of your plan, decide before you incorporate, not after your mortgage offer is issued.
Why Use a Property Holding Company Above Your SPVs?
The lender point above is a constraint, not a verdict. Investors accept it because a property holding company does something a standalone SPV cannot: it lets profit move between companies without leaving the structure.
When a property SPV pays a dividend to its parent, the dividend is generally exempt from corporation tax in the parent’s hands under the distribution exemption in CTA 2009 Part 9A. The cash arrives at the holding company having borne corporation tax once, in the SPV, and can then fund the deposit on the next acquisition through a new subsidiary.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| SPV 1 earns rental profit | Corporation tax paid at 19% to 25% |
| SPV 1 pays post-tax profit up as a dividend | Generally, exempt in the holding company |
| Holding company holds the cash. | No further tax charge on the receipt |
| Holding company funds SPV 2's deposit | Reinvested without a personal tax event |
Compare that with a standalone SPV. To move £40,000 of retained profit from one company you own personally into another, the money has to come out as a dividend to you, be taxed as personal income, and then go back in as a director’s loan. The holding company route removes that middle step for as long as you reinvest rather than spend.
Two points that are commonly overstated. The holding company itself counts as an associated company, so it divides your corporation tax thresholds along with everything else. And the Substantial Shareholding Exemption, often cited as a way to sell a subsidiary tax-free, requires the company being sold to be a trading company. A buy-to-let SPV is an investment company, so it will not usually qualify. A holding company earns its place when you are reinvesting profits across several properties. Most portfolio landlords end up with a holding company that owns several buy-to-let SPVs, with each new acquisition made through a new subsidiary rather than added to the original company. It rarely earns its place on a single flat, where the extra cost to set up a company (and run it) outweighs the benefit.
Worked Example: Why One SPV Usually Beats Four
Investors are often told to put each property in its own SPV. It sounds prudent. It is also expensive, but not because of formation fees.
Corporation tax uses a 19% small profits rate up to £50,000 and a 25% main rate above £250,000, with marginal relief tapering the effective rate in between. Those thresholds are divided by the number of associated companies under common control.
Take an investor with £60,000 of annual company profit.
| Structure | Lower limit | Upper limit | Corporation tax | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One SPV | £50,000 | £250,000 | £12,150 | 20.25% |
| Two SPVs | £25,000 | £125,000 | £14,025 | 23.38% |
| Four SPVs | £12,500 | £62,500 | £14,962.50 | 24.94% |
Splitting the same £60,000 of profit across four SPVs instead of one costs £2,812.50 more in corporation tax every year. Add four sets of confirmation statements at £50 and four sets of accounts at £600 upwards, and the four-company structure costs over £5,000 a year more than the single-company structure to produce the identical rental profit.
There are sound reasons to use multiple SPVs, principally lender requirements and the need to ring-fence risk on development projects. Cost is not one of them, and “one property, one company” is a rule of thumb rather than an analysis.
Compliance costs stack the same way. Four companies means four confirmation statements, four sets of statutory accounts, four corporation tax returns, four sets of bookkeeping and four bank accounts. On the figures above, the four-company structure costs somewhere between £2,000 and £5,000 more a year in professional fees alone than the single-company structure, on top of the £2,812.50 tax difference.
How Much Tax Will You Pay Once the Company is Set Up?
Formation costs are trivial compared to the tax difference, which is the actual reason most investors incorporate.
A company pays corporation tax at 19% on profits up to £50,000 and 25% above £250,000, with marginal relief between the two producing a 26.5% marginal rate inside the band. A higher-rate individual landlord pays 40% income tax on rental profit, and an additional-rate landlord pays 45%.
The larger difference is finance costs. The restriction on relief for residential finance costs under ITTOIA 2005 s.272A applies to individuals, not companies. A company deducts its mortgage interest in full against rental profit. For a geared portfolio, this is usually worth more than the difference in headline rates.
Two costs run the other way and are routinely missed:
- Extraction – Money inside the company is not money in your pocket. Taking it out as dividends triggers a second layer of tax. The often-quoted corporation tax saving assumes you leave the profit in the company to reinvest.
- Close investment-holding companies – A company that exists wholly or mainly to hold investments pays corporation tax at the main rate of 25% with no access to the small profits rate. Property let to unconnected third parties is excluded from this treatment, so a normal buy-to-let SPV is unaffected. An SPV that lets a property to a connected person, such as a director’s family member, can fall within it and lose the 19% rate entirely. There is also ATED to consider if the company holds a single dwelling worth more than £500,000 and it is not let to an unconnected tenant.
Conclusion: How Much Should You Budget?
For a first SPV bought through a formation agent, with the company formed correctly and no address services:
- Year one – £150 to £250, plus £600 to £1,500 for accounts at the end of the first accounting period.
- Every year after – around £ 700- £ 1,700.
If your projected annual rental profit is under about £5,000, the compliance costs of a company will take a meaningful share, and the structure may not pay for itself.
Get Your SPV Formed Correctly the First Time
We form property SPVs with the right SIC code, share structure and registered office from day one, so your mortgage application isn’t declined over a formation detail. See our property SPV formation packages or book a free 15-minute discovery call.
FAQs
Yes. You can incorporate a company yourself on the Companies House website for £100 without using an agent, solicitor, or accountant. You will need to verify your identity through GOV. UK. UK. UK One Login first and provide your personal code during the application. The filing takes around 15 minutes, and the company is usually registered within 24 hours.
The only compulsory annual cost is the £50 confirmation statement. In practice, a single-property SPV costs between £700 and £1,700 a year, including accounts, the corporation tax return, bookkeeping, and any address services. Accounts and the CT600 are the dominant cost, and they are required even if the company is dormant.
It depends on your marginal income tax rate, your gearing and whether you intend to draw the profits out or reinvest them. A geared higher-rate taxpayer reinvesting profits usually benefits. An unencumbered basic-rate taxpayer who needs the rental income to live on often does not. The answer turns on your specific numbers, not on a general rule.
Corporation tax is 19% on profits up to £50,000 and 25% on profits above £250,000, with marginal relief producing a 26.5% effective marginal rate between the two. These thresholds are divided between associated companies under common control. Extracting profit as dividends adds another layer of personal tax.
68209, other letting and operating of own or leased real estate, is the code most buy-to-let lenders expect. Property developers buying to refurbish and sell generally use 68100. You can register up to four SIC codes, but underwriters focus on the primary code, and an incorrect code is a common cause of mortgage decline.
The Companies House fee is £100 regardless of where you live. Non-resident formation packages cost more because they include a UK-registered office address and mail forwarding, which a UK-resident director does not need. Expect to pay from around £200 plus the statutory fee.
You can apply to strike the company off voluntarily for £13 if filed digitally, reduced from £33 on 01/02/2026. You will still need to file any outstanding confirmation statement and accounts first. Leaving a company dormant and unfiled is not a costless option, because failure to file is an offence.