Help - 66yr lease - to buy or not to buy..

Family_Solo

Partner and I looking to move to bigger house. To cut a long story short - found house we loved and in budget.

However, found out today that it only has 66 years left on the lease... After doing a bit of initial reading alarm bells have started ringing.

What do we do? Avoid lke the plague or look into buying the freehold/ extending leasehold.

How much is to buy the freehold or extend the leasehold? Most informationo seems to relate to flats. Would we even get a mortage on a property that only had 66 years left?

Thanks in advance for an help/ advice.

pinkshoes

You are unlikely to get a mortgage on such a short lease, so you would need cash to buy.

Cakeguts

This house will be cheap for what it is. Is that what you mean by in budget? The reason that it is cheap is because it is unlikely that anyone will be able to get a mortgage to buy it so it will only be open to offers from people who have the whole purchase price in cash.

katejo

Family_Solo wrote: »

Partner and I looking to move to bigger house. To cut a long story short - found house we loved and in budget.

However, found out today that it only has 66 years left on the lease... After doing a bit of initial reading alarm bells have started ringing.

What do we do? Avoid lke the plague or look into buying the freehold/ extending leasehold.

How much is to buy the freehold or extend the leasehold? Most informationo seems to relate to flats. Would we even get a mortage on a property that only had 66 years left?

Thanks in advance for an help/ advice.

I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole! it may only be within your budget because of the 66 years and high costs of extending.

AdrianC

Family_Solo wrote: »

How much is to buy the freehold or extend the leasehold? Most informationo seems to relate to flats.

The same applies.
Once you've been there two years, the statutory extension calculator can be used.
http://www.lease-advice.org/calculator/

Would we even get a mortage on a property that only had 66 years left?

No.

Hoploz

I believe it can be possible for the seller to begin the process of lease extension, and a lender will offer a mortgage on the on condition of it being extended before or simultaneously with completion.

However, the lease extension is going to be a lot of money which the seller is likely o have already factored in to the selling price .... So you'd have to come up with the funds for the lease yourself.

There are lease calculators online which estimate costs so google those, but be prepared for five figures.

Generally speaking advice is buy freehold property wherever possible. Leasehold houses are not that common so only pursue this one if you can't find a freehold house instead. Leasehold houses are unpopular, although in certain parts of the country they are more common than others.

always_sunny

Family_Solo wrote: »

Partner and I looking to move to bigger house. To cut a long story short - found house we loved and in budget.

However, found out today that it only has 66 years left on the lease... After doing a bit of initial reading alarm bells have started ringing.

What do we do? Avoid lke the plague or look into buying the freehold/ extending leasehold.

How much is to buy the freehold or extend the leasehold? Most informationo seems to relate to flats. Would we even get a mortage on a property that only had 66 years left?

Thanks in advance for an help/ advice.

I thought LH houses had those long long long leases! Flat with 66 yr left I would understand.
You can get the buyer to quote the extension and lodge it for your benefit, though be wary of quick extension that will have high ground rents, etc. Should be statutory.

You can get a mortgage by shortening the length (if you can afford it).
I really don't understand people aversion to extend the lease, they rather buy a property with a new lease with an inflated price and ridiculous condition than extend.
It costs money, but so does when it's already extended. I don't see the problem, so long you can get financed.

bruich76

just enquire with the landlord about the possibility of extending the Lease. It can be done to co-incide with your purchase and I cant see the Landlord denying your request.

Rain_Shadow

always_sunny wrote: »

I thought LH houses had those long long long leases! .

Maybe this one was built in 1084?

Doozergirl

always_sunny wrote: »

I thought LH houses had those long long long leases! Flat with 66 yr left I would understand.
You can get the buyer to quote the extension and lodge it for your benefit, though be wary of quick extension that will have high ground rents, etc. Should be statutory.

You can get a mortgage by shortening the length (if you can afford it).
I really don't understand people aversion to extend the lease, they rather buy a property with a new lease with an inflated price and ridiculous condition than extend.
It costs money, but so does when it's already extended. I don't see the problem, so long you can get financed.

Just to echo this, really. The house should only cost as much as it's full value minus the cost of the lease extension.

Mortgages are available. Different lenders have different criteria which demand that the mortgage term ends while there is still a certain number of years left on the lease. Some lenders might be happy, others you may have to reduce the rerm for it to comply with policy.

The offer should be made on the proviso that the lease extension is agreed. There's no risk to a buyer if the lease extension comes with the sale. It might be that the house is more expensive to account for this.

The riskier option is to have a quote for the lease extension before buying so that you have an idea and deal with it after purchase. The price could change though and will rise over time so you need to factor in some danger money to your offer .

By far the simplest way is to makemyour offer conditional on the lease extension being negotiated by the vendor. Wait for the quote and terms to come back before spending money on searches and surveys.