Canal & River Trust recorded its highest number of new boat licence applications on record in both 2024 and 2025. Demand for floating homes on the Thames has kept climbing, and the reasons aren’t complicated: no stamp duty, a purchase that can complete in weeks rather than months, and a way of living on the water that a standard mortgage would never get near.
We were named BUILD Magazine’s Best Riverside Estate Agency in South-East England for 2025, largely on the strength of handling floating-home sales that most agents wouldn’t take on. It’s a niche worth getting right, given how differently these purchases work.
Why Are Floating Homes on the Thames Booming?
Part of the answer is cost. A houseboat is legally a chattel, not real property, so the purchase is exempt from stamp duty entirely, a meaningful saving compared with an equivalent bricks-and-mortar spend. Part of the answer is speed: once due diligence is complete, a floating home sale can complete in as little as two weeks. And part of it is simply that more people have discovered the lifestyle exists as a realistic option, not a curiosity.
None of that removes the need for careful checking. Floating homes are bought differently to houses, and the risks sit in different places.
Is a Floating Home Purchase Really Cash-Only?
In practice, yes. Mainstream lenders don’t treat a houseboat’s construction as standard security, so mortgage finance is rarely available. Buyers should plan to purchase in cash and budget accordingly from the outset. This shapes the whole timeline of a sale, since there’s no lender chain to wait on, but it also means the buyer needs funds ready to move before they start seriously viewing.
What Does “Residential Mooring Status” Actually Mean?
This is the single question that kills or saves more floating-home purchases than any other. A mooring must be confirmed as residential, either on a pied-à-terre basis or as a council-tax-paying residential mooring, before a purchase should proceed. Most moorings are only annually renewable; longer, transferable leases exist but they’re rare, and buyers need the length and transferability confirmed in writing, not taken on trust from a previous owner’s say-so. Mooring agreements are personal to the holder and are rarely assignable automatically, so a change of boat owner does not guarantee the mooring comes with it. We’ve sat across the table from buyers who assumed a mooring would simply transfer, only to find the landowner had other ideas.
What Should a Survey Cover Before You Buy?
Vessel condition needs the same scrutiny a structural survey gets on a house, arguably more, because problems below the waterline are invisible until they aren’t.
- When was the hull last surveyed, and by whom?
- When was the hull last out of the water and re-blacked?
- Have the sacrificial anodes been replaced, and when?
- Is the vessel static or cruising? Static houseboats typically need to come out of the water roughly every seven years, cruising vessels every three to four.
Holding an ICC (International Certificate of Competence) for leisure craft has meant spending a fair amount of time around boatyards, slipways and dry docks over the years, and the pattern is consistent: the vessels that hold their value are the ones with a documented maintenance history, not the ones that simply look tidy on the day of viewing. A boat that’s due a haul-out within a year of purchase is a very different proposition to one that’s just had one, even if the asking price is identical.
What Happens at Completion?
Completion on a floating home can move fast once due diligence is done, sometimes within two weeks of an offer being accepted. On completion, insist on a proper Bill of Sale that records the parties, the vessel’s type, size and colour, the survey date and the surveyor who carried it out, the price paid, and anything that influenced that price, such as whether a day boat or a parking space was included. A verbal understanding is not good enough here; get it in writing before money changes hands.
How Does the Sale Process Differ From Buying a House?
A houseboat’s chattel status changes more than just the stamp duty position. Because it isn’t real property, the usual conveyancing chain, Land Registry checks and standard property searches don’t apply in the same way. The Bill of Sale and mooring documentation carry the legal weight that a normal contract and title deed would carry on a house purchase, so getting them right matters just as much, even though the process looks unfamiliar to buyers coming from bricks and mortar. Some solicitors who handle standard residential sales day to day haven’t dealt with a chattel sale before, and it shows in how long due diligence takes if they’re learning the process for the first time on your transaction. Choosing someone who’s done it before is usually the single biggest factor in whether a purchase completes in two weeks or drags on for two months.
What Does Running a Floating Home Cost in 2026?
Beyond the purchase price, the main ongoing cost is the mooring itself. Thames long-term moorings range roughly from £2,000 to £15,000 or more a year depending on location, and a 60ft residential berth in the London and South East area typically sits at £8,000–£14,000 a year. Residential moorings usually carry council tax in Band A, around £1,200–£1,500 a year. The Environment Agency has confirmed no increase to Thames lock mooring charges for the year running April 2026 to March 2027, which at least offers some stability on one line item.
Finding a mooring in the first place is often harder than finding the boat. We cover the search itself, and how we help clients source moorings through our network, in our separate guide to finding a residential mooring on the Thames.
If you’re weighing up whether floating-home life is right for you before you get into the specifics of any one boat, our broader piece on living on the River Thames sets out how it compares with riverside houses and island homes.
If you’re actively looking, browse our current floating homes for sale, or call us on 01784 557898 to talk through a specific boat before you commit to a survey.
Frequently asked questions
Can you get a mortgage on a houseboat?
Rarely. Mainstream lenders don’t treat a houseboat’s construction as standard security, so most floating-home purchases on the Thames are cash-only.
Do you pay stamp duty on a houseboat?
No. A houseboat is legally classed as a chattel rather than real property, so houseboat purchases are exempt from stamp duty.
How often does a houseboat need a hull survey?
Static houseboats typically need to come out of the water for a hull survey roughly every seven years, while cruising vessels usually need one every three to four years.
How quickly can you complete on a floating home purchase?
Once due diligence on the mooring status and vessel condition is complete, a floating home purchase can complete in as little as two weeks, since there is no mortgage lender to wait on.
