RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE FOR PRIVATE CLIENTS

The Government has this week outlined measures to ensure leaseholders can extend their lease by a maximum of 990 years at zero ground rent. This is part of proposed reforms to make home ownership fairer and more secure.
 
These changes could save leaseholders significant sums of money as they would put a stop to freeholders increasing the ground rent. They will also allow house and flat leaseholders to extend their leases to a new standard 990 years as opposed to current rules which only allow a one-off 50 year extension for leases of houses and a 90 year extension for flat leases, albeit that flat owners can extend by 90 years as often as they wish.
This is good news for leaseholders particularly as escalating ground rents have been a controversial subject for some time. These can cause leaseholders problems when selling their home.
 
The Government also intends to introduce an online calculator to make it easier for leaseholders to see how much it would cost to buy the freehold or an extended lease.
 
The press release put out by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 7 January states that legislation will be brought forward in the upcoming session of Parliament to set future ground rents to zero. However there is as yet no timetable for the other measures and no details as to how the proposed reforms will be implemented.
 
 
 

The Treasury announced this week that the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) holiday will not be extended despite petitioning from the property industry for, at the very least, a phasing out period for the relief. The government have said that it was designed to be a temporary relief in order to provide momentum to the property market as well as safeguard jobs within the property sector.
Since its introduction, transactions have increased and the Treasury cites data showing that in October 2020, transactions were 8% higher than in October 2019.
With no extension to the deadline, time is now running short to complete transactions by the end of March 2021, particularly as backlogs are being experienced. To ensure you benefit from the SDLT saving, you need to act now. Make sure you are proactive on your purchase so as not to be the one holding it up.

Our team will be working as usual throughout December until Wednesday 23rd December when we will close at 13:00

After a short break for the Christmas and New Year festivities, the office will re-open at 09:30 on Monday 4th January.

We wish you the compliments of the season and hope that 2021 will see some normality returning to our lives.

Stay safe and enjoy the holiday period.

Very best wishes from John and the Prime Portfolio team.