Residential property: Don't write off leasehold just yet
- Category: Property
- Date: 05-09-2017
As a way of owning your home, leasehold is getting a bad name. A steady stream of stories about developers raking in huge profits while first-time buyers find themselves stuck with a property they cannot sell have made it the villain of the property market.
With public concern mounting, the government has felt compelled to act, releasing a consultation and proposals intended to – in its own words – ‘crack down on unfair leasehold practices’. The communities secretary was hardly being hyperbolic when he described the plans, such as banning ground rents beyond a ‘peppercorn’ (a nominal amount of no real financial value) or stopping the sale of newly built leasehold houses, as ‘radical’.