Is it worth extending my 92 yr lease before selling?

Hi there

I've been browsing your site with interest. I've just put my studio flat on the market for £140k. I've had quite a few viewers. One was very enthusiastic about putting in an offer until she learned that my lease was 125 years with 92 years remaining (she'd previously been told by the estate agent that it was over 100 years). She requested I found out how much it would cost to extend it. I tried but the leaseholder suggests that I enlist a surveyor as they haven't had a lease extension request so far as the flat's were built in the 70's and they consider 92 years to still be very long so they're unsure. And I won't have owned the flat for 2 years until September so I couldn't actually extend it anyway for a few more months.

Do you really think it's worth doing? The agent never mentioned that it was a short lease and none of the other flats have obviously applied for an extension even though quite a few of them are also up for sale at the moment.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi Hazel,

In my experience you would only normally start to experience problems where the lease is about 85 years or less remaining. With 92 years remaining can I suggest you continue marketing the property, as I am fairly confident you will find a buyer who is not concerned with the 92 year term. If you still struggle to find a buyer who is happy to overlook the term of the lease, I would then advise you have a surveyor prepare a valuation report for you. I can recommend a surveyor for this purpose, depending on where the property is.

You are correct in that you cannot serve a formal notice on the freeholder until you have owned the flat for 2 years (this is 2 years from when your name was registered at the Land Registry), but this does not prevent you from negotiating outside of the legislation with your freeholder. This being said, it appears your freeholder is not willing to do anything until you get a valuation report!

If you are in any particular rush to sell your flat, I can only advise you get a valuation report carried out asap, then approach this freeholder with an offer.

Many thanks

Tom