Disadvantages to purchasing house freehold?

Tom_2011

If a house in Belfast, (not an apartment), is leasehold as many are, is there any disadvantage for the owner occupier purchasing this? Meaning the house would become freehold.

Or would there be any tax implications of doing so? Property rates implications?

The advantges being the owner would own the ground on which the house is built, and no ground rent would be owed?

Thanks

saverbuyer

As you are talking about ground rent what you are trying to do here is "buy out" the ground rent and purchasing the freehold.

There are no tax or rates implications to this. It's easy to do, you can do it yourself, and only need a solicitor to sign a form. If you do it on your own you'll save a few hundred.

There are only two real advantage I can see, 1: you no longer have to pay ground rent and 2: Some (not all) existing covenants will fall.

There are a few threads on here with details on the process if you do a search on ground rent.

NAR

Also, for the future, some buyers consider buying freehold a big advantage.

Tom_2011

Thanks for the info saverbuyer!

saverbuyer wrote: »

There are a few threads on here with details on the process if you do a search on ground rent.

I'll have a look for those.

Tom_2011

NAR wrote: »

Also, for the future, some buyers consider buying freehold a big advantage.

With this being the case, and if it's relatively inexpensive, I wonder why more people don't?

Or perhaps more do than I realise?

saverbuyer

NAR wrote: »

Also, for the future, some buyers consider buying freehold a big advantage.

This is true however a compulsory redemption scheme will be introduced which requires the purchaser to redeem the ground rent before they can register title. They will always be buying freehold.

Eventually there will be no ground rent in N.I. or at least that's the idea.

saverbuyer

Tom_2011 wrote: »

With this being the case, and if it's relatively inexpensive, I wonder why more people don't?

Or perhaps more do than I realise?

Several thousand have. The scheme still costs money. A few hundred pounds in fees alone and 9 times annual ground rent. Many people would probably rather pay a tenner a year rather than £300 for the redemption.

It was only introduced in 2002 so only ten years.

saverbuyer

Tom_2011 wrote: »

Thanks for the info saverbuyer!

I'll have a look for those.

Good luck. Best advice I can give is do it yourself, just get a local solicitor to sign the affidavit. It is a really simple process.