Why you should start your Belsize Park lease extension

Top reasons for lease extension now:

A Belsize Park leasehold property depreciates with the years remaining on the lease.

For anyone whose Belsize Park flat is held on a long lease, our message is clear – if you do nothing, the property will ultimately revert to your landlord, leaving you empty-handed. The shorter the lease the less it is worth and the more expensive it will be to extend the lease.

An extended lease is almost the same value as a freehold

Leasehold residencies in Belsize Park with over 100 years unexpired on the lease are often referred to as ‘virtual freehold’. This is where the lease value the same as a freehold interest in your home. In such situations there is often little upside in purchasing the freehold unless savings on ground rent and estate charges merit it.

Mortgage lenders will not grant a mortgage on a short lease

The trend since over the last decade has been for banks to tighten lending criteria generally - this has extended to the property over which the mortgage is to be charged. This has meant the minimum number of years remaining under the lease required by banks has increased. Historically mortgage companies were content with 25 years plus the term of the loan - typically 50 year leases but those requirements are being increasingly undermined by the requirement for longer and longer leases - many now have a minimum term of 75 years as standard.

Get in touch with one of our Belsize Park lease extension solicitors or enfranchisement solicitors

The lawyers that we work with handle Belsize Park lease extensions and help protect your position. A lease extension can be arranged to be completed to coincide with a change of ownership so the costs of the lease extension are paid for using part of the sale proceeds. You really do need expert legal advice in this difficult and technical area of law. The conveyancer we work with provide it.

Belsize Park Lease Extension Example Cases:

Finn, Belsize Park, North London,

Finn was the the leasehold proprietor of a 2 bedroom flat in Belsize Park being marketed with a lease of a little over fifty eight years remaining. Finn informally approached his freeholder a well known Bristol-based freehold company for a lease extension. The landlord was keen to grant an extension on non-statutory terms taking the lease to 125 years subject to a new rent initially set at £200 per annum and increase every 25 years thereafter. No ground rent would be payable on a lease extension were Finn to invoke his statutory right. Finn obtained expert legal guidance and was able to make an informed decision and handle with the matter and ending up with a market value flat.

Belsize Park case:

Mr Daniel Norbert took over the lease of a first floor flat in Belsize Park in July 2011. The question was if we could shed any light on how much (roughly) compensation to the landlord could be to extend the lease by an additional years. Comparable flats in Belsize Park with an extended lease were valued around £267,600. The average amount of ground rent was £65 billed yearly. The lease ran out in 2092. Having 67 years left we estimated the compensation to the landlord to extend the lease to be between £14,300 and £16,400 not including fees.