Selling or buying a flat with a short lease

Short lease at a glance

Where the law on lease extensions stands today

We update this strip when the law changes. For each reform and its status, see what is in force in leasehold reform.

What counts as a short lease when you sell or buy a flat?

There is no legal definition. In practice a lease starts to feel short at two points.

• At 80 years or fewer, the premium to extend goes up, because marriage value is added. Marriage value is the extra value a longer lease gives the flat. The freeholder takes half of it.
• Below a lender’s minimum, the buyer may not get a mortgage on the flat as it is. Each lender sets its own figure (see the lender tests below).

A lease gets shorter by a year every year. A flat with 82 years left today crosses 80 in two years, so a seller who waits may pay more to extend, and a buyer who plans to extend later inherits that clock.

Check the years left from the date of the lease and its term, not from the listing. To estimate the premium for your own flat, use our lease extension premium estimate.

Will a buyer’s lender lend on this lease?

A lender can test the lease at two points, and the flat has to pass each test that lender sets:

1. Years left when the buyer applies. A fixed minimum. Some lenders set none and leave it to their valuer.
2. Years left when the mortgage ends. For example, at least 30 years after the last payment.

Nationwide’s published criteria set both: at least 55 years when you apply, and at least 30 years after the mortgage ends. A 30-year mortgage on a flat with 58 years left passes the first test and fails the second, which needs 60. This can come up late, when the lender’s valuer reports, after the buyer has paid for searches and a survey.

Lenders change their criteria. Your lender’s own instructions to us on your purchase are what count.

We are not mortgage advisers. A mortgage adviser can tell you which lenders will consider this flat.

Should the seller extend first, start it for the buyer, or sell as it is?

On price: an estate agent who knows the block can tell you what flats with longer leases there have sold for.

How does a seller start the extension and hand it to the buyer?

A seller who has the right to extend can serve the formal notice (under section 42 of the 1993 Act) and pass its benefit to the buyer at completion. The buyer then takes over the claim on the terms the notice started. This lets a seller offer a buyer a longer lease without waiting for the whole extension.

Two traps:

• If the flat is sold without the notice, the law treats the notice as withdrawn on the day the sale completes. The seller may still owe the freeholder’s reasonable costs.
• A withdrawn notice blocks a new one for 12 months, and the block applies to the flat, so the buyer cannot serve a fresh notice in that time. The 2024 Act is due to remove this 12-month rule, but that part was not in force on 29 October 2026.

For the formal timetable from counter-notice to tribunal, see how the formal route works, step by step.

Is an informal extension safe for a sale?

The freeholder can offer to extend outside the 1993 Act. It can be quicker, and on this route the freeholder’s costs are part of the deal rather than set by law. But the terms are whatever you agree, so a buyer and their lender will look hard at them:

• Length. The formal route adds 90 years. An informal offer may add fewer, which can leave the flat short again within a mortgage term.
• Ground rent. The formal route reduces it to a peppercorn. An informal lease may keep a ground rent, or one that rises, which some lenders will not accept.
• Other changes. An informal deal can change other lease terms. Before you agree, compare every term with what the formal route would give.

If you are selling, a new lease that a buyer’s lender rejects does not help the sale. If you are buying, ask for the draft new lease before you exchange.

What should a buyer agree before exchange on a short-lease flat?

• The price. If the lender’s valuer marks the flat down for the lease, the offer can be renegotiated before exchange. After exchange the price is fixed by the contract.
• Who extends. Agree in writing whether the seller extends before completion, serves the notice and assigns it, or neither.
• The notice, if served. Ask for a copy of the notice, the date the counter-notice is due and the valuer’s report.
• The costs. Agree who pays the freeholder’s costs to completion and any deposit the freeholder has asked for.
• Your lender. Tell your lender or mortgage adviser the years left before you apply, so the valuer is not the first to notice.

Where does Wales differ for a short lease?

• The 1993 Act right to extend, the 80-year marriage value rule and the end of the two-year wait apply in Wales too.
• Disputes about the premium go to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal for Wales (part of the Residential Property Tribunal Wales), not the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).
• If tax is due on the premium, in Wales it is Land Transaction Tax, paid to the Welsh Revenue Authority, not Stamp Duty Land Tax.
• Our lease extension premium estimate covers flats in England only.

What our part costs on a leasehold sale or purchase

Leasehold and new-build homes are priced on a higher fee scale, and a leasehold home also has “Dealing with Leasehold” (£150 + VAT) and a new-build home “New Build Property” (£250 + VAT).

The premium, your valuer, the freeholder’s costs and the HM Land Registry fee for an extension are separate. We give you a written, itemised quote before you instruct us. More about our leasehold work.

What happens next

• Ground rent on a leasehold flat
• How the formal lease extension route works
• Buying a leasehold flat: the checks
• Selling a leasehold flat: the management pack
• More leasehold, explained