flat lease extension fee

cpxz

Hi,
I would like to buy a top floor converted one bedroom flat in england with a asking price of £89,950. The flat has a lease of 76 years left which seems a bit short for me. There are 5 flats in the building including a shop in the groud floor.
I woukd like to know how much the cost to extend the lease to ca 100 years or more will be.
Thanks

Jebrelli

Visit the Lease Advice website (non-profit organisation) and try using the extension calculator on there - you'll need to know how much the ground rent is also. Address is lease-advice.org.

Alternatively, ask the seller to approach the freeholder for an estimate to extend the lease (ie. a private negotiation).

You could also ask the seller to look into the statutory extension route, which would add an additional 90 years to the unexpired lease - in your case, 76 years. Statutory lease extension is only available after 2 years of owning the property, but the seller could start this off for you and you could complete this after the sale.

If you're not happy with the extension costs use this as an opportunity to knock some money off the asking price!

I should also add that yes, 76 years is a bit short - below 80 years something called 'marriage value' kicks in, and this starts to make lease extension costs quite expensive. However, in terms of acquiring a mortgage, a lease longer than 65 years is usually sufficient.