Leaseholders across England and Wales remain trapped in a broken system as Propertymark’s latest survey exposes the devastating financial and emotional toll of leasehold ownership.
Despite recent legal reforms, the reality for thousands of homeowners is rising service charges, unsellable properties and an industry still plagued by unresolved issues.
The Still a Life Sentence survey, conducted in partnership with the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and the National Leasehold Campaign, paints a stark picture of leaseholders struggling under a system that continues to favor freeholders and managing agents.
While the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 put an end to most new ground rents and the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 banned most new leasehold houses, major concerns remain unaddressed.
CRITICAL FAILURES
One of the most critical failures is the slow pace of cladding remediation, leaving thousands of leaseholders footing the bill for fire safety issues they did not create. Service charges are spiraling out of control, and properties affected by cladding scandals remain virtually unsellable. For property agents, escalating ground rents and legal uncertainties continue to cripple sales.
While the Labour Government’s King’s Speech in July 2024 outlined further plans for leasehold and commonhold reform, there is growing concern that progress remains too slow. Campaigners warn that unless urgent action is taken, leaseholders will continue to suffer financial hardship, unable to move on from properties that have become financial traps.
CHALLENGES AHEAD
Nathan Emerson, Chief Executive of Propertymark, says: “Propertymark is pleased to work once again with our colleagues from the National Leasehold Campaign and the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership.
“Nearly seven years on from when our Leasehold: A Life Sentence? report made a considerable impression on legislative change, our members and leaseholders know that they still face many challenges.
“With the latest movement to improve the leasehold system, we hope that this survey can shed light on how we move forward and provide home buyers and sellers with greater protections and rights.”
LONGITUDINAL COMPARATOR
Martin Boyd, Chair of Trustees at the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, adds: “The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership welcomes the Propertymark survey into the costs being faced by leaseholders and the problems that both consumers and estate agents now face when buying and selling leasehold homes.
“This new survey will give a very useful longitudinal comparator of what’s changed over the intervening years and provide insight at a critical time.”
DESPERATE SITUATION
And Katie Kendrick, Founder of the National Leasehold Campaign, says: “This follow-up survey is very timely in light of current outstanding reforms and the need to reinforce the message that urgency and delivery are needed.
“Evidence from our members indicates that very little has changed except that leases are reducing in length, ground rents are escalating, service charges have increased and premiums to extend or buy the freehold are escalating well beyond the means of most. Leaseholders cannot afford to wait any longer.
“The situation leaseholders are facing is worse than ever with many being left in a desperate situation, trapped with no way out.
“We urge all leaseholders to participate in this survey so that Propertymark can present hard data to the UK Government and generate change.”
The survey is split into questions for estate agents, management companies and leaseholders to provide an industry-wide and consumer perspective of leasehold, what has changed since 2018, what has improved and what has worsened.
Access the survey HERE.
