UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,

Apologies if this has been covered before but my search didn't come up with anything that seemed relevant. I am considering purchasing a flat at auction that is currently owned by the local authority. It is being sold as freehold - being the basement flat underneath a victorian house that is a private leasehold. I know that many lenders will not mortgage a freehold flat and I have heard that it is possible to convert properties of this type to leasehold once purchased. I am a cash buyer so only concerned about resale. If anyone has any advice or previous experience of this I would be very grateful.

Cheers

Duncan

Have you possibly got this back to front?

So as I understand it, you are buying the basement flat, and the freehold. This freehold will relate to the Leasehold flats above you.

So you are actually buying two things.

You can strip out the Freehold and set up the Basement on a leasehold agreement similar to the ones above.

It will be less than £1000 to do this.

You then need to consider what you could sell both parts for. This will depend on the obligations and returns set up in the Freehold.

Often you can "sell" the freehold back in equal shares to the leasehold units.

As you are a cash buyer I wouldn't let it hold you back if it stacks up, but I would be careful, that the freehold comes without obligations to sort out the roof, foundations, or walls, windows etc It might be why its in the auction in the first place.