Cash Buyer. No Extension Required.
Short lease flats are the single most common type we buy. We do not require a lease extension before completing. We assess the lease length, make an offer that reflects it, and complete, usually in weeks.
When a lease drops below 80 years, mortgage lenders begin to pull back. Below 70 years, the vast majority of lenders will not lend at all. That narrows your pool of potential buyers to those purchasing in cash, a small fraction of the market.
Even among cash buyers, many are reluctant to take on a short lease because they then face the same problem when they come to sell. The result is that short lease flats can sit on the market for months without a credible offer, or attract buyers who use the lease length as leverage to renegotiate the price at a late stage.
We buy short lease flats because we have the expertise to value them accurately and the cash to complete without lender involvement. We factor the cost of extending the lease into our offer from the outset, rather than using it as a reason to chip the price later.
The impact is not linear. Each threshold changes the picture significantly.
Some mortgage lenders will still lend, but many require a minimum of 85 years at the end of the mortgage term. Buyers are aware the lease will dip below 80 years soon, once it does, they lose the right to extend on the most favourable statutory terms. This creates urgency but also hesitation.
At this length, selling on the open market is still realistic, though you may face pressure to contribute to a lease extension. We buy as-is with no extension required.
The majority of mortgage lenders will not lend at this length. You are effectively selling to cash buyers only, which means a smaller pool of buyers competing for your property. Offers on the open market, if you receive them, are likely to be materially below where a similar flat with a longer lease would sell.
We buy at this length regularly. Our offer reflects the lease cost transparently, without the process of negotiating with a freeholder or waiting for extension quotes.
Below 60 years, conventional sales are very rare. The lease extension cost under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 becomes significant, and the marriage value (the uplift the freeholder receives on extension) starts to add a further layer of cost. Many sellers at this length have been unable to sell for years.
This is where we add the most value. We buy with no preconditions, assess the freeholder situation carefully, and complete in weeks rather than months or years.
Valuing a short lease flat accurately requires understanding the lease itself, the freeholder's position, and what it would cost to extend. We look at the title register, the lease document, any known complications with the freeholder, and current comparable sales in the area.
Our offer reflects all of these factors. If you have already served a Section 42 notice, the statutory notice that begins the lease extension process, that is beneficial to us and we will factor it in. The notice is assigned to us on completion, and we take over the extension from where you left off.
We do not make a headline offer and then reduce it once solicitors have reviewed the lease. What we offer after our initial assessment is what we intend to pay. If anything material changes during due diligence, we discuss it with you openly before proceeding.
The conventional route for a short lease flat is to extend the lease first, then sell. That route can take six to eighteen months and cost tens of thousands of pounds in freeholder premiums and legal fees, before you have recovered any of that outlay from the sale price.
For many sellers, particularly those dealing with an estate, a divorce, financial pressure, or a previous sale that has already fallen through, that timeline is not viable. Selling to us means you do not pay for the extension, you do not wait for the freeholder to respond, and you do not risk a buyer pulling out once they see the lease length.
We are transparent that our offer will be below the open market value of an equivalent flat with a long lease. That gap reflects the lease extension cost. But you do not have to fund that extension yourself, and you complete in weeks.
We have bought flats with fewer than 7 years remaining on the lease. There is no minimum threshold below which we automatically decline. What matters is the full picture: the flat, the location, the building, and the freeholder situation.
No. We buy the flat as it is. We do not require a lease extension before completing the sale. We factor the existing lease length into our offer rather than asking you to go through the extension process first.
The shorter the lease, the greater the discount relative to the full-length equivalent. This reflects the cost of extending the lease and the reduced pool of buyers. We are transparent about how we have arrived at our figure, and our offer does not change after we have made it.
Yes. An unresponsive freeholder is a common complication we encounter. It does not prevent a sale to us, though it may affect the price we can offer, since a missing or uncooperative freeholder creates uncertainty around future extension rights.
A Section 42 notice in progress is a benefit, not a complication. The notice is assigned to us on completion, meaning we pick up the lease extension process where you left off. This can affect the price we offer positively.
