Is it better to buy a leasehold or freehold property in the UK?

Freehold gives you outright ownership of the building and the land, with no ground rent, no service charge tied to a landlord relationship and no lease that gets shorter every year, so all else being equal it's the simpler and cheaper tenure to own. Almost every flat in England is sold leasehold regardless, because there's no straightforward way under English law to split ownership of the land beneath a single block between separate flat owners; commonhold exists as an alternative but is barely used. For houses, always check the tenure specifically: some homes built in the 2010s were sold leasehold, and while the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 has started restricting this, it has not eliminated it. If you're choosing between two similar houses and one is leasehold with anything less than several hundred years remaining, take the freehold one, and if a flat is your only realistic option, focus on how many years are left on the lease rather than the leasehold label itself.

How much does it cost to extend a lease in the UK in 2026?

A typical statutory lease extension premium sits somewhere between £5,000 and £24,000 once the freeholder's reasonable costs and your own valuer and solicitor fees are added on, according to HomeOwners Alliance (2026), though the exact figure depends heavily on the property's value and how many years are left. Above 80 years remaining, the premium is based only on the ground rent you would have paid and the value of the flat reverting to the freeholder at the end of the lease. Below 80 years, marriage value is added on top, roughly half of the increase in value the longer lease itself creates, and that addition scales with the property's price rather than staying fixed. Get a quote from a specialist valuer before you buy if the lease has under 90 years left, so you know the real number before you commit rather than after.

Has the government scrapped ground rent and marriage value yet?

Not yet. Ground rent on brand new leases has been capped at a peppercorn, effectively nil, since the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, but that only applies to leases granted after 30 June 2022; anyone with an older lease still pays whatever ground rent it specifies. A proposed £250 a year cap on ground rent for existing leases, and the abolition of marriage value under Section 8 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, are both still not in force. The valuation-rates consultation needed before marriage value can be switched off only opened on 15 July 2026, and a wider Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill covering the ground rent cap isn't expected in Parliament before this autumn, with Royal Assent not targeted until mid-2027 at the earliest. Don't plan a purchase around either reform landing in time to help you.

Can I extend my lease or buy the freehold as soon as I buy a leasehold flat?

Yes. Since the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024's reforms commenced in 2025, you get the statutory right to start a lease extension or freehold purchase claim immediately after completing your purchase, rather than having to own the property for two years first, as the rule previously required. For flats, a standard statutory extension adds 90 years to what's left on the lease at a peppercorn ground rent. For leasehold houses, the extension right was increased from 50 years to 990 years at a peppercorn rent under the same Act. If the lease on a flat you're buying is already getting close to 80 years, this immediate right is exactly why it's worth starting the process soon after you complete rather than putting it off.

246,000 leaseholders are still stuck paying marriage value

You've finally found a flat in your budget: a two-bed in Birmingham, offers over £165,000, and the estate agent mentions in passing that it's "leasehold, 84 years remaining" before moving straight on to the kitchen. You nod, because you've heard leasehold is normal for flats, and you've also half-heard that the government fixed the worst of it back in 2024. Neither of those things means what you probably think they mean, and the gap between them can cost you thousands of pounds you have not budgeted for.

Start with the number that should worry you more than any reform headline: 246,000 owner-occupied leasehold households in England already have fewer than 80 years left on their lease, the exact point at which extending it becomes sharply more expensive (MHCLG, Leasehold dwellings 2024 to 2025, updated 30 July 2026). And the 2024 Act that was supposed to fix that cliff edge for good has not actually switched off the extra cost yet, not for you, not for anyone.

What leasehold and freehold actually mean

Freehold means you own the building and the land it sits on outright, with no lease running down and no ground rent to pay, unless the house was sold with an attached estate rentcharge, which some new-builds still carry. Leasehold means you own the right to live in the property for a fixed number of years, typically sold new at 99, 125 or 999 years, while someone else, the freeholder, owns the land underneath and around you. As the leaseholder you're generally the one paying ground rent, unless the lease started after 30 June 2022, when the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 restricted ground rent on new leases to a peppercorn, effectively nil, and a service charge for maintaining the building and shared areas.

Almost every flat in England is sold leasehold, because English law has no simple way to split ownership of the land under a single building between separate flat owners. Commonhold, the alternative used across most of Europe, has existed here as an option since 2002 but is barely used. Houses can be leasehold too, particularly some built in the 2010s, and a leasehold house on a badly run estate can carry costs a freehold one simply doesn't.

So if the property you're looking at is a house rather than a flat, check the tenure specifically before assuming it's freehold, because that assumption is exactly where leasehold houses catch first-time buyers out.

Why the 80-year mark on your lease is the number that matters

Every year a lease runs down, the flat becomes marginally harder to mortgage and marginally cheaper to buy, and both a lender's valuer and a future buyer's solicitor will typically flag anything with fewer than about 90 years remaining (Leasehold Advisory Service/HomeOwners Alliance guidance, 2026). The real cliff edge sits at 80 years. Extend or buy the freehold above that point and the premium is based only on the ground rent you would otherwise have paid and the value of the property reverting to the freeholder at the end of the lease. Drop below 80 years and marriage value kicks in: an extra charge worth roughly half of the increase in the property's value that a longer lease creates, stacked on top of everything else.

Nationally, a real slice of leaseholders is sitting close to that line. 30% of all residential leases in England have between 80 and 125 years remaining, MHCLG's largest single band, and 10% already have 80 years or fewer left (MHCLG, Leasehold dwellings 2024 to 2025, updated 30 July 2026). For owner-occupiers specifically, that 10% works out to 246,000 households already past the threshold, rising to 17% among leaseholders aged 65 and over, since older leases naturally run shorter.

So if the lease on a flat you're considering has anything under 90 years left, treat the gap down to 80 as a countdown, because every year you wait to extend it, whether by choice or while you save a bigger deposit, moves you closer to a bill that can jump sharply the moment the lease crosses under 80 years.

What's genuinely changed since 2024, and what's still just a promise

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 did deliver some real, already-in-force change. Since its reforms commenced in 2025, you get the statutory right to extend your lease or buy the freehold immediately on completing your purchase, rather than waiting two years as leaseholders previously had to. Leasehold houses can now extend by 990 years at a peppercorn rent, up from the old 50-year extension, and a successful Right to Manage claim no longer has to cover the freeholder's legal costs.

What the same Act has not delivered, despite plenty of coverage suggesting otherwise, is the abolition of marriage value. Section 8 of the Act, which removes marriage value from the calculation altogether, hasn't been commenced, and can't be until the government sets the specific valuation rates a surveyor must use, a consultation on those rates that only opened on 15 July 2026 (House of Commons Library, Leasehold reform in England and Wales, 2026). Separately, a group of freeholders challenged the Act in the High Court; their claim was dismissed on 24 October 2025, but permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal has since been granted, adding legal uncertainty on top of the administrative delay. A £250-a-year cap on ground rent for existing leases, and a wider Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill banning leasehold for most new flats, remain draft proposals published for scrutiny on 27 January 2026, with an amended Bill expected in Parliament this autumn and Royal Assent not targeted until mid-2027 at the earliest (Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, 27 May 2026).

Marriage value isn't gone. It can't be switched off until a rates consultation that opened in July 2026 concludes and Parliament approves what follows.

So if you're weighing up a leasehold purchase on the assumption that marriage value or high ground rent will be gone by the time you come to extend, budget as though neither reform has happened, because as of September 2026, neither one is law.

What extending your lease or buying the freehold actually costs

For a lease still above 80 years, a typical statutory extension premium sits toward the lower end of a wide national range, generally £5,000 to £24,000 once the freeholder's reasonable costs and your own valuer and solicitor fees are added on top (HomeOwners Alliance, 2026). Buy a flat with, say, 82 years remaining and use your immediate right to start the process soon after completion, and you're looking at the lower end of that range for a property in the same bracket as a typical first-time buyer flat.

Wait instead, whether to save a bigger deposit or simply because the purchase drags on, and the maths changes fast once the lease slips under 80 years. Marriage value doesn't apply gradually; it switches on the moment the lease crosses that line, and because it's calculated as roughly half of the value the extension itself creates, the added cost scales with the property's value rather than staying fixed. HomeOwners Alliance has documented cases where waiting just 18 months past the 80-year mark added more than £30,000 to a lease extension bill on a higher-value property (HomeOwners Alliance, 2026); a typical first-time buyer flat won't see a figure that large, but the same mechanism, half the uplift added on top of everything else, applies at every price point.

The maths, in one place:

Above 80 years remaining: premium based on ground rent plus reversion only, typically £5,000 to £24,000 including fees (HomeOwners Alliance, 2026). Below 80 years: the same premium, plus marriage value, roughly half of the value increase the longer lease creates. Crossing the 80-year line, not just running down toward zero, is the single costliest moment in a lease's life.

So the two years between an 82-year lease and an 80-year lease are worth protecting more than any other two years of ownership, because they sit between a ground-rent-only premium and one with marriage value stacked on top.

What this means for you

If you're looking at a leasehold flat with anything under 90 years remaining, get an indicative lease extension cost from a specialist valuer before you make an offer, not after you have exchanged, and use that figure to negotiate the price down or budget for it alongside your deposit and your Stamp Duty bill. You have the right to start the extension process the moment you complete, so there's no reason to sit on a lease that's drifting toward 80 years once you own it. Don't buy on the assumption that a ground rent cap or the end of marriage value will make any of this cheaper by the time you need it: neither is law, both depend on a consultation and a Bill still working their way through Parliament, and the government's own timeline points to 2027 at the earliest. Most first-time buyers who run these numbers end up treating the years remaining on a lease exactly like a Level 2 or Level 3 survey finding: a cost to price into the offer now, not a surprise to deal with later. If your own credit history is also worth checking before you get that far, the credit score myths that trip up first-time buyers are worth ruling out early too, and once you have completed, the new homeowner checklist covers what else needs sorting in your first year.