Type Of Property

What is a leasehold property?

When you buy a leasehold property, you are buying a certain term of years from a freeholder. A freeholder is the person who owns the land underneath the property. Technically, at he end of the period, that leasehold period, you have to hand the property back to the freeholder, but you have the right to add ninety years to your lease length at any time during the period of your lease provided you've owned that property for two years.

What are the advantages and disadvanges of leasehold property?

The disadvantage of a leasehold system is that you don't own the land on which your property sets. The advantage of this is that someone else is responsible for it's upkeep.

When is a lease too short?

Up to a point, it depends where you are in the country. In central London a 2 year lease is still considered to be an appreciating asset whereas it wouldn't be the same if it was outside London. With two and a half thousand sources of mortgage finance in UK, you really can finance pretty much anything. But I think I would advise you, if you were in London, I don't think you should ever really consider anything much less than 3, 4 years. If you're outside London, I think really 8 years should be considered to be the minimum.

How much will it cost to extend a lease?

I'm afraid the criteria used for actually valuing your 9-year extension are really quite esoteric. It's an unusual process. However, if you go an talk to a local surveyor, for a nominal sum -- say, a hundred pounds -- he will be able to run a calculation which will give you within 5% of the sale, an almost exact figure of what it will cost you.

What is a freehold property?

With regards to types of property, a freehold property is when you actually own the land your property sits on.

What are the advantages and disadvanges of a freehold property?

With regards to types of property, the advantage of owning your own freehold is that obviously you own that land the property sits on. This is a nice and secure feeling. The disadvantage of owing a freehold though is that you are entirely responsible for its upkeep.

What is a registered property?

It's very rare to find a property that's not registered with the land registry. The majority will be. And that's good news because it will mean that all the boundaries are clearly defined and there shall be no problems with title.

Should I buy a property that is unregistered?

With regards to types of property, buying a property which is unregistered is very much something for the specialist. I mean, anecdotally, several times here in central London we've got experience with people who have simply gone into the land registry, seen where there's unregistered land, written their name in on the title deeds, gone off and lived in that property for a few years. If they've lived there for ten years consecutively without being challenged, that land is then theirs. This is the only way in which you're going to get an unregistered property registered, so it's a very specialist process.