Leasehold
Leasehold means you own a home for a fixed number of years under a lease from a landlord. Most flats in England and Wales are sold leasehold.
Leasehold is a form of ownership in which you hold a property for a set number of years under a lease. The landlord, called the freeholder, owns the building and the land.
Most flats in England and Wales are sold leasehold. Some houses are too, particularly on newer estates. When a leasehold home is sold, the buyer takes over the remaining years of the lease.
How a lease works
A lease sets out how long you own the home, what you pay and what you can and cannot do. Long residential leases often start at 99 or 125 years, and some at 999 years. The lease runs down each year until it ends, unless it is extended.
Leaseholders usually pay ground rent to the freeholder and a service charge for the upkeep, insurance and management of the building. The lease says which repairs belong to the leaseholder and which to the landlord.
Why the length of the lease matters
The years left on a lease affect what a home is worth and whether a buyer can get a mortgage on it. Lenders set their own minimum lease lengths, and a short lease can make a flat harder to sell.
Leaseholders of flats and houses can often extend the lease or buy the freehold, subject to rules on how long they have owned the home. A solicitor or conveyancer checks the lease as part of conveyancing.
Leasehold in sold price data
HM Land Registry Price Paid Data marks each sale as freehold or leasehold. Leases of seven years or less are not recorded in the data. The record does not show how many years were left on the lease at the time of sale.
Because most flats are leasehold, a leasehold sale is often a flat sale. When you compare prices in an area, keep flats and houses apart, and freehold and leasehold apart. Our guide to what the Land Registry price data includes explains the tenure field.
Share of freehold
A flat sold with a share of the freehold is still held on a lease. The difference is that the flat owners together own the freehold, so they are also their own landlord.
| Owns | The home for the length of the lease |
| Typical for | Flats and maisonettes |
| Usual costs | Ground rent and service charge |
| Recorded as | L (leasehold) in Price Paid Data |
| Not recorded | Leases of seven years or less |
Related terms
Freehold · Flat or maisonette · Price Paid Data · Conveyancing · Material information