i'm buying a new house at the moment and it's currently leashold with a rent of £3 per year. They've offered me the freehold for £390 including all transfer fees and legal costs. the leasehold has 930 years to run i think! is this a good deal? what happens if i say no, i'll keep the leasehold. can the company holding the lease increase the amount? i don't intend staying for more than a few years, certainly not 930 but i don't want to turn it down and then get an increase in the rent to some extortionate amount. anyone know?

The lease will detail if the Ground rent can be increased and by what formula

IMHO

Buy the Freehold that will give you the option to sell in the future as freehold or re do the lease to give you a small income

PHIL

Given that the value of the property should rise, I'd buy the freehold in an instant. Having leasehold on an ad for a house will put some people off straight away, even if it is for a long time. It'll make it easier to sell and mean the whole lot is yours too :)

Go for the freehold, you never know what might happen to the ground rent, though with nearly 1000 years to run on the lease that side of it makes it effectivly freehold anyway.

David

Depending on where you live and who owns the lease will determine what you actually get when you purchase the 'freehold'. Our house is £6 every 6 months and they want £680 for the 'Freehold'- solicitor advised against it since all the 'rules' seem to remain in place. So we would still have to request their permission for extensions etc. (& pay! just found out £90 for loft conversion and £75 for conservatory, £140 to register both at same time ;) )

But I agree that it probably is worth it from the selling point of view. When we started looking for a property we ignored any with leasehold on the details! - We will probably get round to purchasing it at some point.

Mick

Take it from me, `been there, done that`.
Would NEVER touch another leasehold property for as long as I live.
Lots of aggro involved.
Save yourself a large headache, you wont regret it.
Joan.