Buying a leasehold apartment may not be as financially attractive as first thought.
If your lease has less than 99 years left to run then it is possible the value of your property may fall, as the remaining lease gets shorter. Once your lease has less than 90 years left to run, it can be difficult to obtain a mortgage. This will make it harder to sell or re-mortgage, meaning that you can be locked into high rates of interest. If you sell a leasehold property with less than a 100 year remaining on the lease you can expect the market value to be lower than a comparable apartment with a longer lease.
Leasehold apartments being sold new with either 250 or 999 years really don’t represent an issue as they will clearly pass our ownership period and that of anyone we may pass the investments on to.
If you own a leasehold apartment with a lease having less than 101 years now is the time to act. For every year you wait to extend your lease, the cost of getting the extension will rise – don’t delay!