First time buyer WANTING TO BUY A short lease property

ftb1

26 year lease. £89950 asking price. Is there any way to finance this in an affordable way or am I just kidding myself?

Have looked at mortgages - lease is too short
Bridging loan - lease too short and too expensive

What other ways can you finance a house purchase?

PLEASE HELP!!!

GMS

Why would you buy a property with only a 26 year lease?

Dave_Ham

Stupid question but why can the lease not be extended?

Or why would you want to pay near market value for a 26 year lease?

ftb1

I figure that I could probably get the property for £60K ish and extend in two years.

ftb1

It raising the initial finance. I live in london and if you are not earning the big bucks yet, you have to get inventive if you want your own property.

eddddy

Assuming you can find finance...

On paper, buying a short lease and then extending it can be a very profitable thing to do.

On this basis, do you know why the current owner hasn't extended the lease? Why are they not taking advantage of the profit opportunity? Could there be a legal problem which makes it difficult (or perhaps even impossible)?

If I were you, I would get a specialist solicitor to check the lease etc to make sure there would be no major problems with a potential lease extension.

I guess you've done your homework on marriage values etc. You would probably have to find a big chunk of money in 2 years time. But at that stage the property would hopefully become mortgagable (but you should also check its mortgagability before buying, as well. E.g. If it's in a high rise block, it would be a problem).

If you have a 'difficult' freeholder, some people warn that you may have to spend a few years and a few thousand pounds on professional fees getting the lease extended.