Is 91 years considered a long enough lease for a flat?

lombrozo

I have the choice of two similar flats. One has a 91 year lease at £170k, the other 117 years at £190k, is 91 years unwise considering I will probably want to sell in 5+ years time?

nithaniel

Hi Lombrozo,
I would consider this a good lease. I am in the process of lease extension myself. As a rule you are able to pay to extend your lease at any time after owning the property for at least 2 years but the cost of that is negotiated between you and the free holder. If the lease is below 80 years remaining then the factor they use to calculate lease extension cost is changed so it is far more costly to increase a lease with less than 80 years remaining. Provided you sell your property before the lease drops to 82 years or below then the lease should not have a significant impact on the resale value. However in reality every year it drops can reflect on your resale price.

AlexMac

Use the lease extension calculator on this site, as I did the other day, cos I am thinking of buying a flat, to see how much it's likely to cost you to exercise your legal right to extend. When you come to sell, some people might be put off by a lease in the low eighties (I was) so factor the cost of extension into your current offers and you'll then be in a much better position when you eventually sell on.

cattie

A lease that has 91yrs left is a good buy & even if you did want to sell in 5 yrs time, it will still have over the magic number of 80yrs left to run, so is unlikely to put many if any buyers off.

But if given the choice between 91 yrs lease & 117 yrs, I'd go for the longer lease myself as it's always going to be a much more attractive proposition if you do want to sell in a few years.