What to check before buying a leasehold home

Before buying a leasehold home, find out how many years are left on the lease, what the ground rent and service charge are and how they can rise, who manages the building and what the lease lets you do. Your conveyancer gathers most of this, but read the answers yourself.

Checked 16 Oct 2026

What leasehold means

With a leasehold home you own the right to live in it for a fixed number of years, under a lease with a landlord who owns the freehold, often called the freeholder. When the lease runs out, the home goes back to the freeholder unless the lease has been extended. Most flats in England and Wales are leasehold, and some houses are too.

The lease sets out what you pay, what you are responsible for and what you may and may not do. It is a long legal document, and its details can affect the home’s value as much as its condition.

Years left on the lease

Leases are often granted for 99 or 125 years, sometimes 999. What matters is how many years remain today, not the original length. Your conveyancer will confirm it from the lease and the title register.

The number to watch is 80 years. Under the current rules, once a lease is down to 80 years or less, the cost of extending it rises significantly, because the freeholder can claim a share of the extra value the extension adds, known as marriage value. A short lease can also make the home harder to mortgage and harder to sell.

Many leaseholders have a legal right to extend their lease once they qualify. Ask what an extension would cost before you make an offer, and whether the seller will start the process for you. The Leasehold Advisory Service has free guides and a lease extension calculator.

Ground rent

Ground rent is a yearly payment to the freeholder set by the lease. Check how much it is and, just as important, how it can change: some leases double it at fixed intervals or link it to inflation. A ground rent that rises steeply can put off lenders and future buyers.

Most new long leases granted on or after 30 June 2022 can only charge a peppercorn ground rent, which in practice means nothing. That rule applies to newly granted leases, not to an existing lease you buy from a seller, so an older lease keeps whatever ground rent it already sets.

Service charge and the management company

The service charge pays for running the building: buildings insurance, cleaning, repairs to shared parts, lifts, gardens and the managing agent’s fees. It can change every year. Ask for:

the service charge accounts and budgets for the last few years, to see how the charge has moved;
how much is in the reserve or sinking fund that saves for big jobs such as a new roof;
any planned major works, and whether leaseholders have been formally consulted about them (a process known as a section 20 consultation);
who the freeholder and the managing agent are, and whether leaseholders run the building themselves through a residents’ management company or a Right to Manage company;
for flats in taller buildings, the position on fire safety and cladding, and who is paying for any remedial work.

Your conveyancer usually gets most of this in a management information pack from the managing agent. Read it yourself: a large bill for works already agreed can arrive soon after you move in.

What the lease lets you do

Leases often contain conditions, sometimes called covenants, that affect everyday life in the home. Look for rules on:

alterations: whether you need the freeholder’s permission to change the layout, replace windows or lay hard floors;
subletting: whether you can let the home, and on what terms;
short-term lets: many leases ban holiday or short-stay letting;
pets and running a business from home;
repairs: who is responsible for the roof, structure, windows and shared parts, and how the cost is shared.

Ask the seller whether any work was done without the freeholder’s consent. Putting that right after you buy can cost time and fees.

Leasehold reform

The law on leasehold in England, and in some respects Wales, is being reformed. Legislation passed in recent years aims to make extending a lease or buying the freehold cheaper and simpler, to give leaseholders more information about charges and to restrict new leasehold houses. Several of its measures depend on further rules and are coming into force in stages, and more changes have been proposed.

Do not rely on news reports about what has changed. Ask your conveyancer which rules apply to the home you are buying on the day you buy it.

Check it for a specific home

The This home section of a HouseReport report shows the tenure recorded at each past sale, and when the home was sold as leasehold, Things to check reminds you to ask for the years left on the lease, the ground rent and the service charge. The report does not hold the lease itself, so those answers come from the seller and your conveyancer. Look up any address to see what its free preview shows.

Look up any address

The free preview shows which of these checks the report answers for that home.