A Flat With 109 Years Remaining as Lease: Worth paying the asking price?

Lord_Frugal12

I would like your urgent advice, especially from experiences property experts. 

  I found a nice flat. I fell in love with it instantly. It ticks most boxes. The only concern, according to my friend, is the length of the lease. It had a 125 year lease. The building was built in 2007. Now, this flat has 109 years left in the lease. 

I am tempted to make the offer for the asking price. My friend says that I should negotiate the price down because the lease is only 109 years.   "It would be expensive to extend it later on."

My fear is this: in the same area, a property for the same asking price was snapped up quickly. I fear that if I start asking for deductions, I might lose it. 

I do have the advantage of being a cash buyer. So,  this is why my friend thinks I should negotiate. 

My heart says that in the current property market in the UK, a flat is going to sell quickly as demand had exceeded supply. Dithering over £5,000 might hurt me. I really don't want to miss out on this. Time is a pressure, as you might understand. 

 What would you do? Make the offer and agree to the asking price? Or, negotiate for  a reduction in the price because of the 109 years and not something like 999 years. 

I would be grateful for your advice, especially from those who know a lot about the leaseholds and the purchase of apartments for residential purposes. (I want to buy to live). 

cymruchris

You could keep it for 20 years, and it would still be easily mortgageable for the next buyer....

There are many homes with shorter leases than these that get sold every day without people worrying over the length.

Yes it's not 999 years - but it's still considerably over a 100 years. (I'm guessing you'll be long gone by the time the lease expires ) 

Is this your forever home? How long do you envisage staying there? 

If you think it's what you want - then pay what you're prepared to pay rather than faff about over a couple of thousand pounds and losing it. 

If you offer less - and someone else gets it - how would you feel?

If you offered asking - and got it - would you always wonder 'what if I'd offered £5k less?'.

The answer really is, whichever way you go, you could win, you could lose - so for all of our advice you might still make the wrong decision

tacpot12

I bought a flat with about 118 years on the lease, and extended the lease when it got down to 106 years. The cost was just over £2,200 for another 90 years. 

Your cost to extend will depend on the ground rent, and the cost of the freeholder's legal fees. My local council is the freeholder and charged £1000 for their legal fees. 

Puddings

I bought a flat at 86 years, extended around 82 years for c£4k for a 990 year lease. All factored in to my budget when I bought as I knew the 'magic number' was 80 years. 

user1977

Surely it depends whether the asking price already takes into account the length of the lease? You don't say whether it does or not (or whether you've even figured that out).

MFWannabe

Sounds like you really want the flat and will be gutted if you don’t get it so pay what you are prepared to pay to secure it; the lease is not that short 
Also how quickly do flats sell in that area? So if you start trying to negotiate the price how likely is it to get turned down? How confident is the seller they will get asking price? 

None of us here know the area or how quickly properties sell 

propertyrental

But maybe the seller has priced the flat based on the 109 year lease?
s there another similar flat with a longer lease nearby? What is that priced at?

109 years is a long time. The questions really are:

* how much do you like it? 
* Can you afford it?
* how much are similar flats selling for?
* if you don't buy it, how badly will you regret it?
* how quickly are flats like that selling at present ie if you offer lower will it just get snapped up by someone else?

Have you bought the Land Reg Title? Read the lease? Worked out who the freeholder is? Checked the general maintenance condition of the building?

Sarah1Mitty2

Lord_Frugal12 said:

I would like your urgent advice, especially from experiences property experts. 

  I found a nice flat. I fell in love with it instantly. It ticks most boxes. The only concern, according to my friend, is the length of the lease. It had a 125 year lease. The building was built in 2007. Now, this flat has 109 years left in the lease. 

I am tempted to make the offer for the asking price. My friend says that I should negotiate the price down because the lease is only 109 years.   "It would be expensive to extend it later on."

My fear is this: in the same area, a property for the same asking price was snapped up quickly. I fear that if I start asking for deductions, I might lose it. 

I do have the advantage of being a cash buyer. So,  this is why my friend thinks I should negotiate. 

My heart says that in the current property market in the UK, a flat is going to sell quickly as demand had exceeded supply. Dithering over £5,000 might hurt me. I really don't want to miss out on this. Time is a pressure, as you might understand. 

 What would you do? Make the offer and agree to the asking price? Or, negotiate for  a reduction in the price because of the 109 years and not something like 999 years. 

I would be grateful for your advice, especially from those who know a lot about the leaseholds and the purchase of apartments for residential purposes. (I want to buy to live). 

I don`t think that would describe the current market. Have you used PropertyLog to get a feel for prices in your area?

NameUnavailable

Just as important as the lease length are the ground rent and service charge.

If it has a low/fixed ground rent and reasonable service charge then the lease length wouldn't be an issue for me - you only really need to think about extending if you were looking to sell and it was getting down to 90 years or less (and absolutely before it dropped to under 82 years when it gets much more costly to extend).

Sarah1Mitty2

Lord_Frugal12 said:

I would like your urgent advice, especially from experiences property experts. 

  I found a nice flat. I fell in love with it instantly. It ticks most boxes. The only concern, according to my friend, is the length of the lease. It had a 125 year lease. The building was built in 2007. Now, this flat has 109 years left in the lease. 

I am tempted to make the offer for the asking price. My friend says that I should negotiate the price down because the lease is only 109 years.   "It would be expensive to extend it later on."

My fear is this: in the same area, a property for the same asking price was snapped up quickly. I fear that if I start asking for deductions, I might lose it. 

I do have the advantage of being a cash buyer. So,  this is why my friend thinks I should negotiate. 

My heart says that in the current property market in the UK, a flat is going to sell quickly as demand had exceeded supply. Dithering over £5,000 might hurt me. I really don't want to miss out on this. Time is a pressure, as you might understand. 

 What would you do? Make the offer and agree to the asking price? Or, negotiate for  a reduction in the price because of the 109 years and not something like 999 years. 

I would be grateful for your advice, especially from those who know a lot about the leaseholds and the purchase of apartments for residential purposes. (I want to buy to live). 

How many other offers do they have?

Lord_Frugal12

cymruchris said:

You could keep it for 20 years, and it would still be easily mortgageable for the next buyer....

There are many homes with shorter leases than these that get sold every day without people worrying over the length.

Yes it's not 999 years - but it's still considerably over a 100 years. (I'm guessing you'll be long gone by the time the lease expires ) 

Is this your forever home? How long do you envisage staying there? 

If you think it's what you want - then pay what you're prepared to pay rather than faff about over a couple of thousand pounds and losing it. 

If you offer less - and someone else gets it - how would you feel?

If you offered asking - and got it - would you always wonder 'what if I'd offered £5k less?'.

The answer really is, whichever way you go, you could win, you could lose - so for all of our advice you might still make the wrong decision

This advice is really useful.

I offered the asking price. It was accepted. 

Now, I am going through the conveyancing process.  

Ton answer you question, this will not be my "forever home." Hopefully, within  three years, I aim to upgrade.