{"id":21666,"date":"2018-10-15T16:30:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T15:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.buyassociation.co.uk\/?p=21666"},"modified":"2018-10-15T16:30:53","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T15:30:53","slug":"government-makes-a-move-to-scrap-leasehold-on-new-build-properties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/2018\/10\/15\/government-makes-a-move-to-scrap-leasehold-on-new-build-properties\/","title":{"rendered":"Government makes a move to scrap leasehold on new build properties"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest housing policy initiative has been announced by the Government\u2019s Communities Secretary, James Brokenshire. He has confirmed plans to ensure the majority of new build properties are sold as freehold in future, doing away with leasehold and excessive ground rents.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The announcement said although the measure will not be retrospective, in future ground rents will be capped at a mere \u00a310 per annum.\u00a0 At present, on average leaseholders pay more than \u00a3300 ground rent a year and this figure can be as high as \u00a3700.<\/p>\n

Housing a priority for government<\/h4>\n

This latest announcement is part of the Government\u2019s move to make housing a priority<\/a> and improve legislation for homebuyers and tenants.<\/a>\u00a0 This consultation will run for six weeks and estate agents will be invited for their specific industry views.<\/p>\n

Mr Brokenshire said: \u201cI\u2019m taking concrete action to protect home owners and end those unscrupulous leasehold practices that can cost tenants hundreds of pounds. Unfair ground rents can turn a home owner\u2019s dream into a nightmare by hitting them in the back pocket and making their property harder to sell.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the Government\u2019s proposals, which are subject to consultation, the majority of new houses will be sold as freehold, and future ground rents will be reduced to a nominal sum.\u00a0 The consultation will also seek views on what are the appropriate and fair exemptions, such as shared ownership properties and community-led housing to ensure consumers\u2019 best interests are at the heart of the property market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile leasehold generally applies to flats with shared spaces, a number of developers have been increasingly selling houses on these terms \u2013 placing further financial burdens on those looking to buy a house of their own through unnecessary surcharges like ground rent.\u00a0 This can also mean that selling their home is more expensive and take longer than selling a freehold property.\u201d<\/p>\n

NAEA welcomes proposals<\/h4>\n

Mark Hayward, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, said:\u00a0\u201cThousands of home owners across the country are facing escalating ground rents, charges for making alterations to their properties and unable to sell their home. It\u2019s only right that the Government looks to crack down on unfair leasehold practices to stop even more people feeling trapped in homes they cannot afford to continue living in.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, housebuilders and developers have not been transparent enough about what it actually means to buy a leasehold property.\u00a0 Our recent\u00a0Leasehold: A Life Sentence?<\/a>\u00a0report found almost half (45%) of leasehold house owners didn\u2019t know they were only buying the lease until it was too late, two thirds (62%) feel they were mis-sold and the vast majority (94%) regret buying a leasehold.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis announcement is positive news for those looking to buy a leasehold property in the future.\u00a0 There are over 4.2 million leasehold properties across England and our industry should continue to review the current legislation across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest housing policy initiative has been announced by the Government\u2019s Communities Secretary, James Brokenshire. He has confirmed plans to ensure the majority of new build properties are sold as freehold in future, doing away with leasehold and excessive ground rents. The announcement said although the measure will not be retrospective, in future ground rents… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":15457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,6],"tags":[350,341],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}