Purchase the freehold to my flat

gfagbemi2

Hi,

I live in a purpose-built block of 12 flats and I am in the process of purchasing a share of the freehold.

Will this increase the value of my property? Should I tell my mortgage lender?

Thanks

ethank

How long is your lease?

If you have a long one, then probably not by much!

buglawton

Many lenders only lend on leasehold flats, they prefer the clear legal situation. A freehold flat could be worth less than a long leasehold one.

Senior_Paper_Monitor

Having 'share of freehold' does not change the flat to a freehold flat. The leasehold does not change and the lender (who will be informed by the conveyancers handling the transfer of freehold) will be unconcerned (unless there is any negative change to lease conditions - which shouldn't be the case).




Make sure you understand the implications of the change but it should generally be to your benefit (and generally enables extension of leasehold with much greater ease - which is certainly to your and the lender's benefit, although as e-thank points out: if you already have a long lease the benefit becomes minimal) and the solicitors should be ensuring that you understand this.

kingstreet

As SPM says, the flat remains leasehold (and mortgageable as a result!) regardless of who owns the freehold.

You have to understand when you do this, you become two legal entities. You are on the one hand, the leaseholder of the flat but on the other you are also the freeholder (or part) of the whole block.

The two things are totally separate and should not be confused. After doing this, you will not have a freehold flat, nor do you want one!

buglawton

I was thinking of cases where there is a shared freeholding - there are numerous examples of stalled purchases where solicitors or lenders could not get to grips with this.