Buying leasehold with 13 years left

[Justcannotbearsed]

How does this work, is there a right to extend the lease?

Yes you would have the right to extend the lease after owning the property for 2 years, but it will cost you basically market value of the property with that short a lease. I wouldn't bother with this property if it were me. It will be unmortgageable until you have a long lease.

Less than 7 years left (i think) and you don't have the right to extend the lease.

It won’t be mortgagable for a start so if you need one stop there…
Extending leases is also incredibly expensive especially the amount you’d need to on a lease that short.

It would be worth it if you view it as a medium term rental where you pay the rent up front. So today's rental price x 12 months x 13 years. With a discount for the up front use.

There are several like these available in prime locations like zone 1 London.

You will need to be a cash buyer. The seller can start the process of buying the leasehold and pass that on to you. You need to get specialist advice as to the cost of the extension

is there a right to extend the lease?
Yes. Which makes me wonder why the vendor hasn't done it. Warning bells?

senua simply didn't have the cash for that - likely ownerd it for a while and the market price has risen hugely (and that's the price for lease extension). Otherwise it was a part of a landlord#s portfolio and they don't want it anymore - selling while they can still get an ok price, as any lower would not be good.

Leasehold renewal is not for the faint-hearted, I've done it once (on a lease with about 60 years remaining) and never again! Think very carefully about the hassle and expense before you embark down this road. Central London properties aside, there is a leasehold valuation tribunal to turn to if you can't agree a sum with the freeholder, but the whole process is costly and incredibly time-consuming.

When a lease gets below 80 years it’s both complicated and usually very expensive to extend. It will only get more expensive in two years. As @OneRingToRuleThemAll says, if you treat this as renting for 13 years, it might be a good deal (depending on price). If you are looking for a place to own, this is going to be an expensive nightmare. If it’s a lot less than comparable properties, it’s because the cost of extending will be more than the cost of buying the lease.

I extended a lease as a seller. When i bought the property it had enough years on it for my mortgage provider (over 70 from memory) but by the time I came to sell they wanted more and no one could get a mortgage on it. It wasn't much hassle (solicitor dealt with it all) but delayed the sale, lost me a couple of offers in the process and cost a not insignificant amount of money (around 10% of the sale value).