Selling leasehold land - advice please?

Dusser12

Hello,

I own an old council flat with a reasonably sized garden which I feel could be a good development opportunity and am considering selling the garden in the hope a developer may be interested in building on the land as it in a desirable area. Given that my property is a leasehold not freehold I would like to know if it is possible to sell the gardens (assuming the other leaseholders are also interested in making a sale) and if so what would be the recommended process?

As a short background:
- In total the land with main building (four flats) is approaching 1/2 an acre (including building) in a residential area for which I own a quarter as part of the lease.
- Each flat has its own separate garden - I think all gardens need to be sold in order for the developer to have interest in the land
- The land has a direct access road without need to demolish the existing buildings
-There is currently 95+ years left on my lease.

Any comments welcome on how to best approach this process will be well received!

eddddy

I would guess that your lease almost certainly prevents you from sub-leasing the garden.

So you could try getting into negotiations with your freeholder first, to see if you can get permission to sub-lease. Most private sector freeholders would want a big chunk of cash in return for this - I don't know how a council freeholder would react.

Also, I don't think that a piece of land with 4 different 95 year sub-leases would be acceptable to a developer.

Marktheshark

You have misunderstood what a leasehold is.
You own a contract, a bit of paper that affords you rights, the land, the bricks, the building is owned by someone else.

Cakeguts

Lets start again. You don't own an old council flat what you own is the lease of an old council flat. Someone else, the freeholder owns the building and the garden. So unless the freeholder wants to sell the land it can't be sold and you can't get any money for it because you don't own it you only have a lease of it.

Dusser12

Thanks for the comments everyone, however surely the freeholder cannot make a gain from the land whilst the property is privately leased? Given that leaseholders have the rights to extend their leases could we all not be a long way from making a gain from the land if the freeholder solely wants to profit from the land sale? Therefore a couple of options spring to mind:


- The leaseholders try to buy the freehold and then negotiate the land sale separately.
- The freeholder buys the leaseholds for the properties and then sells the land as they wish.
- The freeholder and leaseholder mutually entering into an agreement to sell the land
- The leaseholders sell their properties to the housing management association (who have previously expressed an interest) and they negotiate with the freeholder. (They also have the links with the council to negotiate development of the land).


Do any of the above seem reasonable to solve the solution of the lease?

moneyistooshorttomention

Whatever way one looks at leasehold/freehold - there are 3 other households involved and there is bound to be at least one of them that intends to keep their garden and/or not have any development nearby.

Therefore - you would be wasting your time and effort to even try to do this.

marksoton

Bottom line is it's not yours to sell.

The chances of this happening virtually zero. Chances of you profiting even less so.

eddddy

Dusser12 wrote: »

- The leaseholders try to buy the freehold and then negotiate the land sale separately.
- The freeholder buys the leaseholds for the properties and then sells the land as they wish.
- The freeholder and leaseholder mutually entering into an agreement to sell the land
- The leaseholders sell their properties to the housing management association (who have previously expressed an interest) and they negotiate with the freeholder. (They also have the links with the council to negotiate development of the land).

Yes - all those options could be possible.

If your goal is to make some profit for yourself, option 1 may be easiest for you.

If the council (your freeholder) don't realise there is development potential, you may get the freehold cheap.

If they do realise, they'll probably push up the price of the freehold accordingly. So you might not want to mention your plans in advance.

Obviously, there's the risk that you buy the freehold, and then can't get planning consent.

Cakeguts

Dusser12 wrote: »

Thanks for the comments everyone, however surely the freeholder cannot make a gain from the land whilst the property is privately leased? Given that leaseholders have the rights to extend their leases could we all not be a long way from making a gain from the land if the freeholder solely wants to profit from the land sale? Therefore a couple of options spring to mind:


- The leaseholders try to buy the freehold and then negotiate the land sale separately.
- The freeholder buys the leaseholds for the properties and then sells the land as they wish.
- The freeholder and leaseholder mutually entering into an agreement to sell the land
- The leaseholders sell their properties to the housing management association (who have previously expressed an interest) and they negotiate with the freeholder. (They also have the links with the council to negotiate development of the land).


Do any of the above seem reasonable to solve the solution of the lease?

If the council wants to sell the land with your flats on it and the extra garden space in order to either build more flats or for someone else to build more flats all is has to do is to put a compulsory purchase order on the flats and the garden.