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If you’re asking “should I extend my lease now or wait?” you’re not alone. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 aims to make it cheaper for many leaseholders to extend their lease or buy their freehold, but key changes may not take effect until 2027. In this guide, we explain what the new law means, weigh up the pros and cons of acting now versus waiting, and help you decide your next steps.
KEY INFORMATION
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 will strengthen existing consumer rights and introduce new ones for leaseholders, including by:
For more information read our guide on Leasehold reform.
If you are a leaseholder considering whether to extend your lease or purchase your freehold now or to wait, you should seek advice from a leasehold specialist. You can get a free initial consultation and estimate from our leasehold specialist partners.
However, what you may choose to do will depend on factors like your lease length and your circumstances. For example:
| Situation | Likely best option | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Lease length 80 to 82 years | Extend now | Almost certainly advisable to extend. It’s unlikely that the reforms will be through before your lease drops below the “80-year mark” at which marriage value currently kicks in for leaseholders. There is no guarantee that it will be cheaper in the future than it is for you now. |
| Lease is above 82 years | Wait or monitor | It’s up to you. It is likely to be made cheaper by the reforms, but it might also made more expensive. If you’re comfortably over the threshold, say 100 years, you could wait to see what reforms come. |
| Want to move and the current lease is an issue | Extend now | It’s probably best to extend unless you’re prepared to wait for reforms to be implemented. Read on for more on this. |
| Lease below 80 years | Wait | If you don’t need to move, consider waiting as extending may be much cheaper once marriage value is abolished. |
| Ground rent above 0.1% of property value | Wait | Consider waiting because it may be made cheaper for you in the future if the 0.1% cap applies to your lease. See our guide to ground rent for more information. |
However, this is a general overview – make sure you get advice tailored to your circumstances.
Get expert advice on extending your lease, buying your freehold or applying for the right to manage.
If you’re selling a leasehold flat with a short lease (under 80 years), extending your lease now could be very expensive as you’ll need to pay marriage value. But if you don’t extend your lease, you could struggle to sell.
So if you’re in this situation, here’s what to consider, says Linz Darlington, CEO and co-founder of lease extension specialists Homehold.
“It seems highly likely it’ll be another 18 months or more before the Act is implemented. The Government needs to do further consultations, pass further legislation and provide an implementation period. Once it has been implemented, it can then take around a year for your lease extension to happen. If you’re happy staying in your flat for 2.5+ years, you can wait and see. But if you can raise the cash for the lease extension and that lets you sell the flat and get on with your life – then that’s a sensible plan too.
| Pros of extending a lease now | Cons of extending a lease now |
|---|---|
| Unclear how long it will take for the leasehold reform to be fully enacted. The longer you wait, the shorter your lease will become. | It may be cheaper to extend your lease if you wait until the reforms are enacted. |
| No guarantee that extending a lease will become cheaper for you when the reform is fully enacted. So it’s important to get expert lease extension advice. | If you own a leasehold property with a short lease, it may be much cheaper to extend once leasehold reform is fully implemented as you won’t pay marriage value. |
Choosing whether to extend your lease now or to wait is a major decision and the right answer for you will depend on your personal circumstances. So you should get advice from a leasehold specialist. Talk to a lease extension expert – free initial consultation and estimate included.
Get expert advice on extending your lease, buying your freehold or applying for the right to manage.
If you own a leasehold property, a lease extension refers to the legal agreement of extending the term of your lease. If you don’t extend your lease, at the end of its term the property will revert to the freeholder. It is a totally unfair relic of feudal laws, which you avoid by extending your lease.
The lease extension process normally takes from 3 to 12 months, and it can be made quicker by efficient valuers, solicitors and other professional help, so choose these people wisely. Read more in our guide Lease extension process: A step-by-step guide.
Depending on your circumstances, it might not be worth getting involved in the expense and hassle of extending your lease if:
You can get a free initial consultation and estimate from our leasehold specialist partners.
The cost of extending a lease depends on the property value, the length of the lease, the ground rent payable and how often it increases. For more advice, see our detailed guide on lease extension costs.
Using the example of a flat with 85 years left on the lease, expected to be worth £350,000 after the lease extension and with a ground rent of £100 per year, you may need to pay a lease extension premium of between £6,000 and £8,000 plus the below costs.
| Item | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Lease extension premium | £6,000-£8,000 |
| Your valuation surveyor’s costs | £600-£900 |
| The freeholder’s valuation surveyor’s costs | £600-£900 |
| Your solicitor’s fees | £800-£1,300 |
| The freeholder’s solicitor costs | £800-£1,300 |
| Land registry fees | £65 |
However, costs of lease extensions in the UK vary widely.
To get a ballpark figure of leasehold extension costs in the UK use our handy lease extension calculator. But to get a more accurate figure of how much your lease extension could cost, get an estimate today from our lease extension specialists.
Under the current system, lease extension costs can increase sharply once there’s less than 80 years left on the lease due to the ‘marriage value’ being included in the costs.
Marriage value is the theoretical increase in a property’s value following a lease extension. If you own a property and its lease drops under 80 years, you’ll need to pay 50% of this marriage value figure to your landlord as part of the cost of extending your lease.
At about 60 years, the cost of extending the lease increases by about 1% of the value of the property each year – i.e. if the property is worth £250,000, the bill for extending the lease will go up about £2,500 a year. When the leasehold gets down to zero years, it is practically valueless as the whole property reverts to the freeholder (though for a certain period after expiry of the lease you may still have a right to extend the lease).
Under the new Act, you will no longer have to pay this fee to your freeholder. However, this part of the legislation has not yet been enacted.
And get a free, no obligation quote for your lease extension from our leasehold expert partners
Get expert advice on extending your lease, buying your freehold or applying for the right to manage.
Yes. Leaseholders had been required to have owned a property for at least two years before they could extend their lease. But in January 2025, Housing minister Matthew Pennycook, switched on a key part of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act, signing regulations to remove the two-year ownership rule for leaseholders of flats and houses to extend their lease or buy their freehold. Although in reality you’ll need to wait until the Land Registry application has been processed before you can serve the notice.
HomeOwners Alliance Ltd is registered in England, company number 07861605. Information provided on HomeOwners Alliance is not intended as a recommendation or financial advice.
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