True for England and Northern Ireland, not sure the same rule applies in Scotland or Wales. But useful reminder to do some independent research on costs involved in purchasing property. I had only ever purchased in the US but when I moved back to the UK there was an assumption that I 'knew' how the process worked here because I was British and 'middle aged'. I was surprised by how many professionals were unable to go back to basics when I told them to treat me like a newbie!

You can open a UK HSBC bank account from Canada. We did it. There are no minimum balance requirements. It was very straightforward and you can use either a Canadian address or a UK address if you have one. Don’t go for the Premier account or an Expats account, just a regular HSBC account. They schedule a Zoom meeting to verify your ID and that was it.

The house buying and selling procedure in England seems to bring out the worst in people. In Scotland they have a 'blind bid' procedure where you have to make offers above a certain amount requested by the vendor to try and get your offer accepted, but that isn't perfect either as you could end up paying too much for a property.

And in Scotland you don't necessarily HAVE to offer over the asking amount. Depends on the market, asking price vs home report valuation, how badly you want it etc. You certainly could end up overpaying but isn't that true in any market?
I think what your comment leads to is the importance of having a really good estate agent working for you who can help guide you through what's happening locally. Not looking forward to when I start the search for my (hopefully) final/retirement home in a few years :-(