Buying the Freehold of my home

jamez79

Hi,

My home is leasehold and i am interested on purchasing the freehold for the property. I have been told that this is quite expensive to do but is worth while in the long run and for selling the property in the future. Can anyone offer advice on the best way to do this and is there any tips on the way of buying the freehold or saving money on costs etc.

The house is about 30+ years old and is worth about £120,000 - £130,000. Ground rent is £20 every six months ish.

Thanks in advance.

James

VeryTrying_2

If anybody can answer Jamses's query, I'd be interested in the reply too. The house I'm interested in has a ground rent of £7.50 a year (and that includes the property next door as well). The lease has nine hundred and something years still to go.

I think there is a rule of thumb valuation of something like x? times the annual amount. Anybody know any more?

ManAtHome

First step is to approach the leaseholder - they should give you a price and an indication of solicitor's costs. I believe houses are normally cheaper than flats, but prices do vary - depends when the lease started and how long it has to run.

ps - been offered mine for £250 + costs (not yet known), is a 999 year lease started around 70 years ago, ground rent around £3 pa.

greenwich

As always, the absolutely essential first step is to read every word about this subject at https://www.lease-advice.org.uk They have separate pages about buying the freeholds of flats and houses.

financial_filly

We bought our leasehold about 1 yr ago and it was a little expensive but there was only 50 something years left on it so we decided to buy it now rather than later.

We had to pay £60 for Freeholder's solicitor to get a quote then had to pay £2,350 for the freehold, £300 plus VAT for the seller's legal fee and £300 plus VAT for the surveyor and then we had to pay around £00 for our solicitor as well. So not that cheap (we paid a ground rent of £20 pa) but makes it worthwhile in the long run.

I'm sure ot varies greatly from toen to town etc. but hope that helps a bit

Meeten

I am in a similar dilema.

I, along with 5 others have approached the managing agent of the property, and offered to buy the leasehold.
Now, the agent has accepted our offer, but to date (> 1 yr) nothing has happened!

Is there anything that we can do to force the matter through?

Surely after 18 months we should have some progress!! I have contacted their solicitors, and they claim that the freeholder (not the managing agent) is abroad and they are having difficulty in contacting him.

Where do we go now?

Thanks

jamez79

Hi,

Thanks for all the responses.

Is there a way i can calculate a rough price i will have to pay for the freehold?

Robert_Sterling_3

As a ball park figure in the region of £1000.

Logical reason

The freehold brings in about £40 per year.

£1000 would also bring in about £40 per year.