Shared ownership house lease query

martyp

Hi all,

I'd like to at some point purchase the other 50% share of my house but considering the lease situation.
I believe there would be about 65 years left of the 99 year lease and I understand these are expensive to increase?
If I was to buy the other 50% I would have the freehold (confirmed this) so lease costs wouldn't be an issue but if I sold it now there would be a large cost to extend the lease for the new buyer? Can anyone explain/advise?

I assume that the lease situation wouldn't impact the value of the house in relation to buying the other half from the housing association would it?

Many thanks

eddddy

martyp said:

If I was to buy the other 50% I would have the freehold (confirmed this) so lease costs wouldn't be an issue but if I sold it now there would be a large cost to extend the lease for the new buyer? Can anyone explain/advise?

I assume that your freeholder is a housing association.

It's very possible that what you say is correct - so it could be a waste of money extending the lease, you should just buy the other 50% share (if you can afford it).

But each Housing Associations is free to make up their own rules about how to handle lease extensions, etc - so you really need to find out the rules for your specific Housing Association.


(And I've come across some Housing Associations who seem to have completely illogical rules about lease extensions for shared ownership properties!)

martyp said:

I assume that the lease situation wouldn't impact the value of the house in relation to buying the other half from the housing association would it?

Typically, the house would be valued as though it was freehold - and so you'd have to pay 50% of the freehold price to buy the other half.

So length of lease doesn't matter.

(But check to make sure that's what your Housing Association do.)

martyp

Many thanks eddddy, much appreciated.
Yes it's a housing association as the freeholder.
I considered if I bought less than the other 50% then the lease might have been an issue.
Hoping to get the other half when (hoping) mortgage interest rates drop as overpaying the half I own a lot at the moment on 1.49% for another 2 years. The rent for the other half is about half what it would be on a mortgage.