Lease Extension

Knight_of_the_Orient

Hi,

I am in a quandry and was hoping to get some advice based on others similar experiences.

I have the opportunity to buy a flat with a lease for 79 yrs for £185k or the same flat with a 99yr lease for 198.5k.

13.5k seems an awful lot for a lease extension of just 20 years, although I appreciate it needs to take into account the "marriage value".

The flat is in London and has a minimal ground rent.

Does anyone have any advice on this? In particular:
- challenging the freeholder
- cost of surveyors etc
- in general, whether this sounds very expensive?

Thanks

Icey77

Mortgage companies start to get antsy on leases which are less than 80 years.

I was about to sell my flat which had 76 years left but due to a chnage in circumstances I have withdrawn it from the market to live in and also will be renewing the lease to 125 years.

When I do come to sell the flat it will sell far more easily with a long lease than a property which will be difficult to mortgage.

Please read my thread on extending my lease here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1570861

Knight_of_the_Orient

Yep I appreciate that, have checked this and shouldn't be a problem with my mortgage offer.

penguine

Knight_of_the_Orient wrote: »

Yep I appreciate that, have checked this and shouldn't be a problem with my mortgage offer.

It's likely to be a problem when you come to resell or remortgage, though.

If the property seems too expensive with the longer lease, then you're probably best off looking somewhere else.