Any Pommie home owners or Real Estate Agents?

[1976_michelle]

Ive been watching the 'Under the Hammer' property auction type show a couple of times, and I'm trying to figure out how the UK property market and ownership goes. The presenters talk about houses or flats etc going for X GBP (eg 110xxx GBP) and still have a 150 yr lease on them wow! WHen you buy a house over there, do you still not even own it? (good luck trying to make a sale on one in the last few years of its lease)

Here I expect the house 'I' own to be mine, completely and utterly, in what is called Fee Simple ownership I think if I am looking it up right, where I have to pay rates etc but the property is mine (or will be in 20 plus years when I finish paying the bastard off lol). When I kick the bucket the house will be left to whatever person I desire it to be left to, and they can do with it what they will. It will not revert to someone elses owership

[loanrangie]

I',m no expert but the 99+ years lease seemed to be common on old houses while i was living there, not on new houses that i am aware of.

[dullbird]

isnt it the same in Canberra you can only buy leases on houses?

[Psimpson7]

Some will be leasehold, some will be freehold.

Google should answer your question.

Sometimes the lease can be bought out for a fairly small sum.

Otherwise it can generally be extended.

[carlschmid2002]

isnt it the same in Canberra you can only by leases on houses?

Yes it is. I never really understood it, but I never bought there when I lived there, I just rented

[sheerluck]

Generally leasehold only applies where there are shared facilities or land, such as flats.

Your average house will be sold freehold.

[KCJones]

Its only leasehold properties that have the lease on them - generally, there are weird exception for Listed buildings (old buildings). they are sometimes owned by National Trust.
All my family own theirs outright (minus the mortgage).

[1976_michelle]

thankyou for the clarification
I was just confused over these people spending ex amount of dollars (or pounds in this case) on leaseholds and did wonder what happened at the end

[Reads90]

Generally leasehold only applies where there are shared facilities or land, such as flats.

Your average house will be sold freehold.

Yeah as said

If you buy a house you own the land well 6 foot ( down of it anyway ( or what ever the exact figure is ) . Pretty much the same as Aus.

[sheerluck]

Yeah as said

If you buy a house you own the land well 6 foot ( down of it anyway ( or what ever the exact figure is ) . Pretty much the same as Aus.

Apparently it used to be "all the way to the centre of the earth", but was changed to 6 feet deep 40 years or so ago. Just so the government would have rights to any oil found.

[wardy1]

The reason for many properties in the UK (Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales too) being leasehold rather than freehold is that these properties were originally part of a village which used to be under the ownership of a Lord, Duke or royalty. They were part of the 'estate'. The villages originally were taxed by these lords etc on goods sold (farm produce etc) as well as paying what used to be called a 'peppercorn rent' (hence the current expression) which used to 1 penny per year. It is easier for them to leave these leaseholds alone than to issue individual titles for them, they number in the tens of thousands.
Villages were encouraged on estates because they provided labour to the owner as well as young men and boys for their armies..... which everyone had back then.

[1976_michelle]

and moderntimes the cost of renewing these leases?
Id be guessing a little more than a penny (given the presenters apparent liking of the fact it wasnt up for renewal for a long while yet). Is it quite a hassle?

[1976_michelle]

Apparently it used to be "all the way to the centre of the earth", but was changed to 6 feet deep 40 years or so ago. Just so the government would have rights to any oil found.

hah, Ill get the backhoe to dig to 7' when the time comes and send the bill to the government for the funeral...

[3toes]

I owned a house in Austrslia which was on a lease not freehold. This was due to there being gold in the area so no one wanted freehold. Too much danger that you would wake up and find a mine in your back yard by someone who had purchased the lease which overrode your freehold.

Most of central London is on leasehold. One family own it. They do very well off the payments that still have to be made to them. Most newer houses are sold on a freehold title basis.

In a strange twist banks even in the good times were not keen to lend against freehold where there were multiple owners - think strata title - leasehold was not a problem though. Hence most do not convert from lease to freehold.