Part-Exchanging my Leasehold Property

[M68M]

I'm hoping someone can help me/has been in a similar situation. Keeping the background of the story short...

I currently own a property that is leasehold with quite a high service charge. I have lost 2 buyers in the last 6 months due to this.

Me and my partner have moved out of the property and in with family, so it is vacant, we did this as a house we were trying to purchase had fallen through, and we didn't want to lose our buyer - which then eventually happened anyway.

We have since then secured and then lost another buyer due to this reason. We / our estate agent had been upfront in the beginning with figures and timelines. Deflated and defeated doesn't even come close at this point.

We are looking to relocate to a slightly cheaper area, about 100 miles away from where we currently are - interested in buying a newbuild property and have heard great things regarding the part-exchange scheme that many of them offer. However - we are dubious to anything sounding too good to be true.

Can anyone shed any light on this at all? Anything helpful at all is welcomed.

Thanks in advance!

We looked into part exchange, but it seems the property you sell can only be worth a certain amount of the new build (70% for every scheme we looked at).

So you need to buy a new build that’s more expensive than your current property, and be able to cover the difference somehow (eg cash or mortgage).

Which didn’t work for us as we can’t afford a property that much more expensive. And it would also presumably cause issues for you moving to a cheaper area.

No idea about the leasehold side of things, but just wanted to flag this.

Thank you so much, that's really helpful.

Is it just high generally or high for the area? Do you get anything above the ordinary done to warrant the cost? What’s the ground rent like?

Just wondering if the agent can make more of the good points regarding the service charge.

Is this years paid up, could you offer to pay the next year or something?

Hi,
it’s high for several reasons, mainly due to extra repair works being carried out and not spreading the cost over multiple bills (were billed every 6 months). We have explained that it should drop back to normal in the next bill in May/June. But nothing. We’re currently paying more than 3x last bill amount.

That’s unfortunate timing, but ultimately shouldn’t really be putting people off.