Buying/Extending a Lease...

Nemo

Hi,

I bought a leasehold semi-detached house in 1994, and which was built in 1990. The original lease was for 99 years, so there will be 79 years left on it. I paid just over £50k for it, and think it will now be worth around £125k. I pay £50 ground rent every year.

This is my first house, and I will admit to being a bit naive at the time about things like house buying, mortgages etc. The solicitor at the time said that it was possible to buy out the lease, but "probably isn't worth it as the £50 you'll pay won't go up".

I'm wondering what to do now, if anything, and what the likely costs would be of the possible option(s). I've just had a quick look at a website (https://www.lease-advice.org) which says it's possible to either buy or extend the lease. I certainly won't be still around when the current lease period run out, but am concerned what would happen if I still lived here and tried to sell in say 30 years when there would be under 50 years to go. Would people be put off buying? Would it cost a fortune to buy the lease then?

So can anyone tell me, in simple terms, what the options and costs would be? Thanks for any advice.

madeupname1

I'm afraid I don't know all of the answers to your questions but here is my experience.

A short lease is likely to reduce the value of your flat should you choose to sell it on, not least because it may be more difficult for a potential buyer to secure a mortgage on a flat with a short lease.

Should you yourself wish to remortgage in the future, a short lease may reduce the number of lenders who are prepared to lend to you or the amount they wish to lend.

I don't know about the costs of extending the lease. As I own part of the freehold, my co-freeholder and I were not going to charge ourselves excessive amounts to extend the lease! It has, however, cost approximately £1,000 in fees (this is in London) being a mixture of the fees of the solicitor, the fees of the mortgage company and miscellaneous costs.