Buying a property with 2 titles

Gwalker

eddddy said:

Do you mean, by any chance, that somebody bought some freehold land, built some houses - which they sold on leaseholds?
And the freehold of the whole development was then sold to a financial institution (investment bank?) as an investment?
And you are now potentially buying one of the leasehold houses?

No. It was a freehold property, they just bought it in 2019 and splited them into two. But now they insisted that their property is freehold, although we have seen that the house actually have 2 land registry titles and the freehold is owned by a bank. 

Gwalker

AnotherJoe said:

I'd go for the simple life, tell the EA you are withdrawing their offer and the owners can come back to you as and when they sort out what they are selling and are in a position to sell you it freehold.

We spoke to the EA this morning and told them to speak to the vendor again, if they don't sort things out till next week, we will look for another property. 

Gwalker

SDLT_Geek said:

Is this a straightforward sharia financing structure?  The Bank would have acquired the freehold then granted the individual a long lease so that the individual pays rent, not interest.  I understand one would normally negotiate a purchase of the property with the individual.  The individual has an option from the Bank to acquire the freehold and so can arrange for both interests to be transferred.

Is it?! I was thinking the same too! That this is some kind of Halal mortgage! But I've never seen anyone doing this so I'm not quite sure.

Gwalker

davidmcn said: 

As somebody else has suggested above, yes perhaps it is, in which case they would be able to sell the freehold when the mortgage is redeemed.

Thanks everybody for the help! The freehold property indeed is owned by an Islamic bank. So I think this is some kind of Sharia mortgage.