Buying a leasehold property in the UK can be complex, especially when you start exploring ways to gain more control. Whether you’re considering collective enfranchisement, the Right to Manage (RTM), or switching to commonhold, each option offers a different route to ownership, management, and long-term value. If you’re aiming for a share of the freehold […]
When you live in a leasehold property, your home might feel like it’s truly yours; but legally, many decisions about the building’s upkeep aren’t in your hands. One of the biggest grey areas is major works: large-scale repair or improvement projects initiated by the freeholder (or their managing agent) that can lead to substantial service […]
As we hit 2026, a few key property trends are becoming pretty clear, with the big shift being a change in demand for freehold homes, largely driven by changes in the rules around leasehold properties, plus a growing push for more transparency in property deals. For people buying property, these numbers give you a real […]
Collective enfranchisement can be a real minefield, with all sorts of legal and financial complications to deal with. And making matters worse is the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) – a chunky tax that’s often a major hurdle for leaseholders who want to take the plunge and buy the freehold. This tax can add a […]
The clearest way to explain collective enfranchisement is to show what it changes in practice. To illustrate what collective enfranchisement might look like in a typical scenario, consider eight leaseholders in a converted Victorian school who had been paying an external managing agent £24,000 a year in service charges. That budget included a management fee […]
The regulation that catches groups out most often is not the most obscure one. It is the participation threshold.
Collective enfranchisement is a concept that empowers leaseholders to take control of their living spaces by collectively purchasing the freehold of their building. This process not only grants leaseholders greater control over their homes but also offers various financial benefits and increased property value. It’s important to consider the freehold cost, which can vary widely […]
To provide a quick refresher: if you find yourself in one of these situations, you and/or other leaseholders are dissatisfied with your landlord’s management of your residential building; or you want to exercise your rights to ownership of your property; or you wish to increase the value of your property, you might be considering whether […]
A peppercorn ground rent is effectively zero: a nominal amount with no monetary value, used to preserve the legal structure of a lease without imposing any real cost on the leaseholder. It is now required for most new residential long leases, but it does not automatically change older leases with escalating ground-rent clauses. For those […]
Official UK Government statistics estimate that there are over 4 million residential leasehold properties in the UK.
