Thread: Any Pommie home owners or Real Estate Agents?

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.

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.