Kept on a short lease

One of the options available to a purchaser of a property is leasehold against freehold. Following extensive research – which largely involves sitting on the edge of the bed first thing in the morning, drinking coffee and watching Lucy Alexander in Homes Under The Hammer) – it seems that lenders are somewhat wary of short leases. By short, they mean 65 or 70 years.

To the uninitiated (me!) it seems odd that 70 years is considered short. To the best of my knowledge you would need to be very fortunate to get a mortgage that stretched beyond 25 years. Or maybe 30, which still leaves a good couple of decades before the lease expiry becomes an issue, so what’s the big deal?

Having said that, the same extensive research seems to indicate that a 25 year extension will cost £10,000, so maybe a brand new lease is ridiculously expensive. Still I think we should know. I think a full briefing from Lucy over a steak and a reasonable red should sort it out.

K