Buying a 'leasehold' house

[OnTheHuntForAHome]

I don't know why but it makes me feel uneasy when I see leasehold.
Viewing a house on Saturday and it has like 800 and something years left.

Nothing to worry about?

I live in an area where 999 year leases are very common. The ground rent doesn't change in that time and is probably very low. Only thing to bear in mind is that you will need the landlords consent to make any changes to the property. Other than that nothing to worry about.

Only thing to bear in mind is that you will need the landlords consent to make any changes to the property That's not always true, as always it depends what the lease says.

There's lots of threads about this, just do a search. In large parts of the country (e.g. NW) the vast majority of houses are long leasehold so it's very common.

New leasehold houses (built & sold in the last 20 years) with shorter leases are different and can be problematic, again it depends on the terms of the lease.

If it’s 1910-1970 in nw with long lease then I wouldn’t worry although there can be some odd restrictions (I can’t keep chickens for example). SE problem is usually shorter leases and high cost to extend. Less than 20 years old and they may have a doubling ground rent which makes them v expensive. Sounds like yours is probably the first type so wouldn’t put me off

We used to have a leasehold house. It was fine, especially with a long lease. We paid £50 a year in ground rent.
When we first bought it, most of the surrounding houses were also leasehold. There were two houses that had been neglected in outdoor maintenance. Both the couples who owned the houses had good jobs etc, inside the houses were immaculate, they just weren’t bothered by the outside. My new neighbour complained to the leaseholder that they were breaking the terms of the lease, by having missing panels in fences, peeling paint of the front door etc, and both houses had to put it right. It is worth bearing in mind the terms of the lease, we had to paint the fascia etc every 5 years, keep fences in good repair etc. Great for the appearance of the area, not so great if you’re maxed out on mortgage and have no disposable income to pay for it.
Things changed and most people bought the leases over time. This might be possible?

OP, I think it depends where you are. There are lots of cities where it's really common, and nothing to worry about.

It depends where you are. I live in an area (not London) where leasehold houses are very common. Interestingly, house prices are very high (just like London) and no one worries about it.

I live in north herts and in a town with lots of long lease properties - doesn’t really affect anything here and certainly not value!

We lived in the NW and mistakenly bought a house which was leasehold.
The ground rent was a whopping £5 a year.
Before we sold it, we bought out the lease for about £250.

I have a leasehold flat. And am about to be hit by a 5.8k bill for a refurb of the building the freeholder wants to do. It will likely bankrupt me. Don’t do it.

I asked the same question a couple of months ago, got some super helpful answers here

We're going ahead with the purchase and have indemnity to cover us as the ground rent is in arrears - only £2 per year!

Depends entirely on the circumstances. In the town where I live (SE England) leasehold houses are very common. Mine is on the shorter side (125 years) but there is no ground rent or service charge.

When we first moved here we planned to buy the freehold as soon as possible but now we may not bother.