Would you buy a leasehold house?

[floofycroissant]

Victorian property, over 900 years left and annual ground rent of £4.

I know ideally I would buy freehold, but I've already blown thousands on rent trying/waiting for the right property to buy in the current market craziness. On paper this seems as good as a leasehold can get - right?

Have I missed any potential red flags?

We've gone with a local solicitor for exactly that reason, they have a clause which increases conveyancing slightly for leasehold so I'm hoping they'll be knowledgeable

"Therefore it is difficult for a solicitor to predict the future and warn anyone of future charges."
You continue to miss the point!!!

No solicitor can predict what WILL happen.

But a good solicitor can and should explain what CAN happen under the leasehold contract.

Solicitors cannot know if the freehold will be sold to a ruthless freehold investor, but can tell you what a ruthless freehold investor can and cannot do if it ever buys it.

I.e. solicitor can explain what costs expenses etc can be charged under the leasehold contract.

This is the point, which, frustratingly, you and so many people continue to miss.

Ok!!! Change difficult to impossible then! The point still stands that what might happen around a property can be researched But not all eventualities are there to be researched.

I don’t think I’ve missed any point. In fact I think I made the same one!

You're being rather rude, @ParentOfOne!

@floofycroissant

Really earsup? I'd read £8k-12k online. I'd buy it in a heartbeat at a low price. I have noticed that none of the neighbours haven't, which makes me think it's not that affordable.

I bought a leasehold house, in one of the areas where they're all victorian terraces with usually long leases and no problems. Because of this I didn't check too much into it before I made an offer, and as it turned out there was only 80 years left on the lease.

Once my solicitor had actually tracked down the freeholder (vendor had never paid ground rent and never been chased for it) I paid about 1k for it. They can basically charge what they like, with prices normally going up the closer to the end of the lease but there are processes you can go through if they're taking the piss. A long lease like that, with minimal ground rent, I'd argue shouldn't cost much. There was also something signed during the purchase that confirmed I wasn't responsible for paying any of the vendor's previous unpaid rent, your solicitors should be used to things like this

@earsup

Go ahead...you can buy the freehold very cheaply...on line calculator works it all out for you....as lease is so long and rent is very small it will be a few hundred if that !

My rent was £18 a year and I just bought my freehold for 11k

No.

Did the leaseholders set the price ballsdeep, how did you get to that amount?

Yes for this type of L/H but no for any new build on new estate.

OOPs...I meant to say...a few thousand, not hundreds...!! the online calculator on leasehold advisory site can work it out for you and then you approach the freeholder...for example, we inherited some flats in hackney sold with 999 year leases and ground rent was £4 a year, when sold leases had about 980 years left and we got about 4K eachfor the two.