Property News · July 26, 2017

The Guardian view on leasehold reform: well overdue | Editorial


The big homebuilders have been riding roughshod over planning authorities and housebuyers for decades. They need to brought under control, nowThe leasehold exploitation that the Guardian has been campaigning against for several years is to be stopped within weeks. This is welcome news indeed for the future, though not for the hundreds of people who bought new flats and houses, mainly in the north-west of England, without knowing the risk of exploitation from buying only a leasehold rather than a more expensive freehold. Some householders have been left with a home that is all but worthless because the freehold has been sold on to a finance company that is levying huge charges from leaseholders for alterations and improvements, while quoting an absurd price to buy the freehold outright.Not before time, the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, has announced proposals to make leasehold fairer. Selling houses leasehold will be banned altogether, and the ground rent for new flats sold leasehold will be set at a peppercorn level. These are practical proposals, first put forward by Labour last year. But they do nothing for more than a million people, many of them first-time buyers, who are already trapped in the leasehold nightmare. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…The Guardian view on leasehold reform: well overdue | Editorial

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