Selling Flat with short lease advise please been on market for 6 weeks

JamieandJo

Hi Everyone

We brought our 1 bed ground floor flat about 4 years ago for £110000.00 with an 81 year lease. As you all know the market crashed shortly after we brought so we guessed we had lost some money.

Fast forward to now (So now has 76 year lease) and we are now deciding to get a bigger place. We had the estate agents round 6 weeks ago and they gave evalutions of 105000, 102000. We decided to go with the estate agent for 102000 as they said the service they offer would get a sale due to the amount of effort they would put in to advertising it.

They came round took pics and put it on the web. A couple of weeks passed and we had a viewing that the estate agent was supposed to be there as we were out but the estate agent didnt turn up so the viewer left and didnt return! .

Another week passed and the estate agent asked us to reduce the price to 99950 due to the lease which after going over our finances we would reluctently accept.

Still no viewings after 6 weeks and we have started to think that the estate agent is not very good as we have to keep chasing them for any update. As it has not been sold it has now been passed over to a group of estate agents for them to review?

We then had a new visit from another man in the same company and he suggested we extend the lease as mortgage companies are not borrowing with a lease under 80 years.

So our questions are

1. Are we being taken for a ride and being told to reduce/extend because they haven't put the effort in and just want to get a quick sale to get thier fees?
2. What is currently the minimum lease mortgage companies are lending on?
3. Should we go with the estate agent and do as he asks or try another?

My partner is desparete to move and with the lease likely to be 15k to extend its not something we really have laying around! So what are our options?

Many Thanks in Advance!

Jamie & Jo

Uk_Lover

I'd be surprised if you had to pay 15k for the extension.
I'm in the process of extending the lease on my new flat and I'm being quoted about 13k (flat worth about 125k).
Have a look here http://www.lease-advice.org/calc/Default.aspx
You could borrow the money to extend the lease as it should increase the value of your property.

brit1234

Sorry but I like other first time buyers wouldn't go near a property with such a short lease especially when you say it will cost £15k to renew. You would simply look at a property in the same range without lease issues.

To increase viewings I would increase your lease or reduce it a lot further without.

Estate agents often overvalue to get you on their books then get you to reduce to a more realistic price later.

sinbad182

brit1234 wrote: »

Sorry but I like other first time buyers wouldn't go near a property with such a short lease especially when you say it will cost £15k to renew. You would simply look at a property in the same range without lease issues.

To increase viewings I would increase your lease or reduce it a lot further without.

Estate agents often overvalue to get you on their books then get you to reduce to a more realistic price later.

Not that you'd know of course, with you having never bought, owned or sold any property in your life.

Angry_Bear

Does the advert state the length of the lease?
Can you get info on the page-visits (I'm sure I saw someone saying their agent counld get that for rightmove)?

Basically you need to try to find out how many/if people are being put off by the length of the lease. If this isn't mentioned in the advert or not many people are clicking to the info page then it suggests that the lease isn't the problem - or isn't the only problem.

seven-day-weekend

Our son has just bought a flat wit a 66-year lease (priced accordingly) and his mortgage provider (Abbey/Santander) said they needed to have 25 years left on the lease after the mortgage term was finished. So presumably they will lend on leases as short as 50 years.

He intends to renew the lease as soon as he can in two years' time.

ILW

Does the price reflect the length of the lease?

Sa-ra-ra-ra

As the lease has dropped to below 80 years you'll have to pay a 'marriage value' sum on the extension.

Have you spoken to your freeholder/freehold company about extending it?

Unfortunately, a lot of EAs do overvalue to get you on their books then pressurise you to drop the price later when they've not made much effort to sell.

cattie

You don't say where you live, but if in a bustling city, such as London, shorter leases don't cause as much concern as in some areas.

In the past year 3 flats/maisonettes in my area have sold with leases of 44yrs and under. They have been to cash purchasers as the lease has been too short to be mortgageable. If the price is right then there are buyers who will consider the property as a viable option and be willing to arrange to extend lease themselves.

As SDW mentions, many lenders will grant mortgages with lease lengths of 55-60yrs remaining, so don't lose hope.

Incidentally, about 12yrs ago I sold a flat with a 76yr lease with no problem and got a very good price for it too. Flat was Victorian purpose built and very centrally located, which made it quite desirable with young professionals.

anna_grant

I found this useful when trying to sell my flat with 78 years left on the lease:

http://www.leaseholddoctors.co.uk/lease-extension-mortgages.html