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Should You Buy A House Or A Flat - What Are The Laws?

Are you interested in real estate investing?

Well, before you consider to buy a property London, few things require your concern.

Whether you buy London flats or buy house London, the choice totally depends on the personal preferences and requirements you have.

What Flats Mean?



Do you like sharing stairs, entrance halls, bin stores and other common areas, then you must buy London flats.

However, most of the flats are leasehold and the terms of that lease will set out landlord’s obligations along with yours as the lessee.

So, before you buy London flats, it is always important to establish basic facts of the flat and the building management. Before you proceed buying, your solicitor will obtain considerable amount of detailed information, but you must find out few facts about the property.

Few things to know before buying an apartment in London.

○ How many years, the lease has been left to run.

○ Current ground rent and service charge of the property along with the percentage of rent that increases after a certain period.

○ Restrictions the premises has. This is crucial to find out before for people with pets.

○ Don’t forget to know about the freehold. Make sure to find out about the building management as a flat can be sold with a share of freehold.

It clarifies that the freehold is owned by a company and all of the flat owners have a share on that particular company. In this case, everyone has a say regarding the upkeep and maintenance of the building. You are always free to ask for a copy of the lease.

Houses come with specific rule sets as well.

Generally, houses are freehold but in spite of that, can be subject to covenants or obligations. However, you can face problems when you will try to refurbish, alter or extend the property.

Some properties do have restrictions on these and these are able to hinder your plans.

If the property is in a bad condition, consider the likely cost of the repair that is required accordingly. Houses can be leasehold and can be around for several years.

Developers are selling leasehold new build properties and some of them have ground rents linked with the inflation rate that generally doubles every 5, 10, or 20 years.

If this is the case, then the rent during the lease term can run into tens of thousands of pounds. Hence, this reduces the value of house on resale.

Try finding out about the rent as soon as possible before you commit to buy property London. The government had already announced a ban on new leasehold houses in December 2017.