Freehold

(asked on 22nd July 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the press release entitled, Leasehold axed for all new houses in move to place fairness at heart of housing market, published by his Department on 27 June 2019, what estimate he has made of the number of house buyers that were subject to the sale of their freehold before they had bought their homes.


Answered by
Heather Wheeler Portrait
Heather Wheeler
This question was answered on 25th July 2019

The Department has no data on the number of house buyers who were interested in or offered the opportunity to buy the freehold of their property at the point of purchase.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating the extent of any mis-selling of leasehold properties, using its consumer protection powers and will consider whether to bring forward enforcement proceedings.

The Government is working with the Law Commission to make it easier, faster and cheaper for leaseholders to purchase their freehold. As part of this project, the Law Commission are considering how best to reduce the premium for purchasing a freehold, given the legitimate property rights held by freeholders.

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