You will find a lot of confident numbers on this question. Almost all of them are a gift shop's guess repeated until it sounds like research, so the first useful thing we can tell you is what happened when we went looking for the real one.
We looked for a British average and there isn't one
On 3 September 2026 we searched for any named UK study of housewarming gift spending: a retailer survey with a stated sample, a consumer body, the Office for National Statistics, a market research report, a bank or insurer's spending data. There is none that we could find. The figures circulating are unattributed blog assertions with no sample, no date and no author, and repeating a number three times doesn't make it a finding. So if a page tells you the British average is a specific amount, ask where the number came from before you spend against it.
Decide it by relationship instead
The useful question isn't what people spend, it's what would look right coming from you specifically. A colleague's flat-warming and your sister's first house are not the same event, and a gift that would be generous from one is odd from the other. Nobody is comparing receipts. They're noticing whether the thing suits the house.
Going in together changes the maths
Four people putting in together reach something a single guest couldn't sensibly buy, and one good piece beats four separate small ones that all have to find a shelf. It's also the format that lets you give something for a wall rather than for a cupboard. If you're organising it, agree the amount before you agree the gift, because the other way round leads to an awkward message on the morning of the party.
What actually decides whether it lands
Fit, not spend. A gift that could have gone to any household this year will be politely received and quietly rehomed, whatever it cost. A gift that could only have been for this house is a different object entirely, and that has almost nothing to do with the price of it.
This sits in the housewarming, next to housewarming etiquette for the rest of the guest's job and what to write in the card, which costs nothing and is remembered longer than most of the presents. When you know the budget, personalised new home gifts and housewarming gifts are where the range starts.
No published UK survey of housewarming gift spending was found on 3 September 2026. Searches covering retailer research, consumer bodies, the Office for National Statistics and market research reports returned only unattributed figures on commercial blogs, which are not cited here.
Written by Craig Fearn, Our House Print. Last updated .