Flat or maisonette
A flat is a home on part of a floor or floors of a larger building. A maisonette is a flat on two floors. Both are property type F in the data.
A flat is a self-contained home that takes up part of a larger building, usually on one floor. A maisonette is a flat spread over two floors with its own stairs inside, and often its own front door.
HM Land Registry records both as property type F in Price Paid Data. It does not separate flats from maisonettes, or purpose-built blocks from converted houses.
Flats and tenure
Almost all flats in England and Wales are sold as leasehold. The buyer owns the flat for the length of the lease, and a freeholder owns the building. Leaseholders usually pay ground rent and a service charge towards the upkeep of shared parts.
Some flats come with a share of the freehold, where the flat owners jointly own the building. Each owner still holds a lease on their own flat. A small number of buildings are held as commonhold instead, where there is no lease at all.
Price Paid Data records the tenure of every sale as freehold or leasehold. It does not record how many years are left on a lease, which can make a large difference to a flat's price.
Flats in sold prices
Flats usually sell for less than houses in the same area, so their share of sales has a strong effect on an area's overall median. In a city district with many flats, a month with more flat sales than usual can pull the median down without any change in value.
House Price Monitor postcode pages show a median for flats and a median for houses side by side, with the share of sales for each. That makes it easier to see when a change in the overall figure comes from the mix of homes sold.
Comparing flats
Two flats in the same block can differ a great deal. Floor level, number of bedrooms, outside space, the length of the lease and the size of the service charge all affect price, and none of these is in the data.
When comparing, start with recent sales in the same building or nearby blocks of a similar age. Our guide on estimating your home's value from sold prices explains how to choose comparables.
| Land Registry code | F |
| Maisonettes | Included |
| Usual tenure | Leasehold |
| Lease length in the data | Not recorded |
Related terms
Property type · Leasehold · Freehold · Terraced house · Comparables · Median price