How time flies! It's over 2 years since you moved into your flat when a lease extension was not an issue. Forget the memories of the flat dweller's good times and not so good and get down to some serious leasehold thinking. You reckon you have about 80 years left on the lease. Eighty years! Enjoy living there or sell up when the time feels right, what's the big worry?
The shorter the remaining time left on your lease, the more difficult and expensive it becomes to extend.
One year is a long time in leasehold extension talk. Shorter leases can be harder to sell. Purchases interested in your property will soon be put off by the fact the lease has left than 80 years left to run.
Enough to make you think again? Well, the fact is that mortgages become so much more difficult to get when the lease drops below the 80 year point. For the wealthy tenant looking for an up market pad in London, fine perhaps. Access to a specialist mortgage lender, happy to loan on a short lease, is more likely. For the average home hunter, this isn't an option.
If you get a leasehold extension now the value of your flat will increase, which considering the current markets is worth the effort to do so. A flat with a lease of 100 years is worth roughly the same as a freehold property. An apartment on a lease of 60 years could be valued at approximately 60 per cent of the freehold price. A sobering thought.
If you are considering a DIY leasehold extension, do not do it. Lease extension is a specialist area of law that will take time and involve specific procedures. It is really crucial to have a team of solicitors working for you that have experience in this area of law.
There is no point starting a longwinded, potentially stressful process only to find you have to abandon it half way. Why? Because you were not entitled to apply! Legal specialists will ensure at the outset that you meet the right criteria and that it is appropriate for you to apply for a leasehold extension.
So, by all means continue to enjoy your flat. But wouldn't it be better with peace of mind? Knowing that your leasehold property stays valuable and in the front row for when that time to sell arises...isn't that your optimum choice?