Leasehold: Reform
(asked on 5th February 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what actions a leaseholder with 99 years left on their lease has to take to take advantage of proposals for a peppercorn rent in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill presently before Parliament.
Answered by
Baroness Scott of Bybrook
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill will make it easier and cheaper for leaseholders to extend their lease or buy the freehold. The Bill includes a statutory right for qualifying leaseholders to obtain a 990-year lease extension, or to buy their freehold, on payment of a premium. In doing so they can obtain a peppercorn ground rent. In calculating the premium, the value of ground rent is capped at 0.1% of the freehold value.
In addition we have consulted on options to restrict ground rents for current leases and will respond to that consultation in due course. This Government has already restricted ground rents for new residential leases to a peppercorn.