Mayor of London launches London Leasehold Advice Portal

Sadiq Khan, The Mayor of London has launched a leasehold guide for Londoners and slams ‘lease’ as ‘unfit for purpose’.

The portal has been created to make the process of buying a leasehold property easier to understand, and, the Mayor recognises that many Londoners who buy their home on a leasehold basis encounter difficulties and confusion.

Call for reform

With the current leasehold purchasing system things aren’t working with increasing ground rent costs, extortionate fees and the very real risk of being people unable to sell their homes. Sadiq is now calling on the Government to reform leasehold and move to a fairer system of tenure.

Guide and reports

The new Mayor of London’s leasehold guide for Londoners aims to make sense of the current system giving people answers to frequently asked questions, as well as further courses of advice.

Leading the debate

In September 2018, NAEA Propertymark submitted written evidence to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee in the House of Commons and produced a report – Leasehold: A Life Sentence, which broke ground on the leasehold scandal.

NAEA Propertymark has set out robust recommendations to tackle the growing problem of life sentence leaseholds. These include preventing the sale of new-build leasehold houses unless there is a legitimate reason, such as shared ownership with a stair-casing lease and ensuring purchasers of new build homes should have access to an ombudsman scheme.

NAEA Propertymark is a member of the Welsh Government’s Task and Finish Group which is looking at how to tackle leasehold in Wales. It is anticipated that the Minister will receive a report from the task and finish group in the Summer.

Further action

NAEA Propertymark will be engaging with the Mayor of London, outlining our research and opening a dialogue to work together.

Kindly shared by NAEA Propertymark