How to Check How Many Years Are Left on Your Lease

Why Your Lease Length Affects the Sale of Your Flat

When you own a leasehold flat, you own the right to occupy the property for a fixed period of time, the lease term. This term counts down from the date the lease was granted. A new-build flat might start with a 125 or 250-year lease, but over the decades, that term reduces. By the time you come to sell, the remaining term could be anywhere from over 200 years to fewer than 60.

Lease length matters because mortgage lenders impose strict minimum requirements. Most lenders want to see a minimum of around 70 to 80 years remaining at the start of a mortgage, and many require significantly more. With the average mortgage running for 25 years, a lender granting a mortgage today typically wants to see the lease extend well beyond 2050. A flat with 65 years on the lease may be genuinely impossible for most buyers to mortgage.

The result is that short-lease flats are effectively removed from a large proportion of the buyer market. The pool of potential purchasers shrinks to cash buyers or investors, which tends to push achieved prices down and lengthen the time the property sits unsold. Understanding where your lease stands before you consider selling is essential. It determines which buyers can realistically make an offer, whether a lease extension would improve your position, and whether there are other routes worth considering.

How to check how many years are left on your lease: a step-by-step guide

Step 1: Confirm Your Flat Is Leasehold

Almost all flats in England and Wales are leasehold; freehold flats are rare. But before checking the term, it is worth confirming the tenure formally rather than assuming. Estate agent listings sometimes describe properties loosely, and occasional flats are held under unusual structures (commonhold, share of freehold, freehold with flying freeholds) that complicate the picture.

The straightforward way to confirm is to download the title register from HM Land Registry. The register either shows the property as leasehold (with a lease term) or as freehold. There is no ambiguity. £7 from the Land Registry online service for the title register download.

If your property is freehold, the rest of this guide does not apply (freeholds do not expire). If it is leasehold, continue with the steps below to find the remaining term.

Step 2: Check the Land Registry Title Register

HM Land Registry holds the official record of every registered property in England and Wales, including leasehold flats. The title register is the primary source of truth for the lease length.

Process:

Visit the Land Registry property search on gov.uk.
Enter your postcode and select the leasehold result for your specific flat.
Pay £7 to download the title register.
Open the title register and look at the Property Register section, which shows the property description and the lease term.
The lease term is typically stated as something like "Term: 99 years from 1 January 1985" or "Term: 125 years commencing 1 January 1990".
Note both the original term length and the start date.

Where available, you can also download the original lease document from Land Registry for a small additional fee. The lease itself contains the full terms and any subsequent variations.

The title register is the most reliable source for lease length. If the lease has been extended at any point since the flat was first registered, the register should reflect this either as a deed of variation or as a replacement lease.

Step 3: Check Your Lease Document or Conveyancing File

If you have a copy of the lease itself (typically given to you by your solicitor at purchase), you have the original source document. The lease will state the date it was granted and the total term in years on the front page or in the early clauses.

Examples:

"A lease of [property] for a term of 125 years from 1 January 1990": original term 125 years, expires 1 January 2115. As at 2026, 89 years remaining.
"This lease grants a term of 99 years commencing 25 March 1985": original term 99 years, expires 25 March 2084. As at 2026, 58 years remaining.

If you do not have the lease, your conveyancing solicitor at purchase should have a copy in the file. Solicitors typically retain conveyancing files for 6 to 15 years; older purchases may have been archived or destroyed. Where the file is no longer available, the Land Registry route in Step 2 is the reliable backup.

Mortgage lenders typically also hold a copy of the lease where they have a charge on the property. Asking your current lender (if you have one) is sometimes the fastest route to a copy.

Step 4: Count From the Commencement Date, Not Your Purchase Date

This is the single most common mistake. The lease term runs from the original commencement date, not from when you bought the flat. If the lease was granted in 1985 for 99 years, it expires in 2084 regardless of how many times the property has changed hands in between.

Worked example:

Lease granted 1 January 1985 for 99 years.
Mary buys the flat in 1985 (year 0). 99 years remaining.
Mary sells to John in 1995. John buys with 89 years remaining (not 99).
John sells to Sarah in 2015. Sarah buys with 69 years remaining.
Sarah considers selling in 2026. The lease has 58 years remaining, regardless of when Sarah bought.

Each successive owner sees fewer years remaining; the lease does not reset on transfer. Counting from your own purchase date can overstate the remaining term by 10, 20 or 30 years and lead to costly surprises during a sale.

The reliable calculation: (commencement year + original term) - current year = years remaining. So 1985 + 99 = 2084; 2084 - 2026 = 58 years remaining.

Step 5: Check Whether the Lease Has Already Been Extended

Lease extensions, whether statutory under the 1993 Act or informally negotiated with the freeholder, modify the original term. A lease originally granted for 99 years from 1985 might have been extended in 2010 to add another 90 years, making the new effective term 189 years from 1985 (expiring in 2174).

Two ways an extension typically appears:

Deed of variation recorded against the existing lease. The original lease number remains; an additional document modifies the term. The Land Registry title register will reference the deed of variation.
New replacement lease granted after surrender of the original. A separate, longer lease takes the original's place. The title register will reference both.

If you bought the flat with an extended lease in place, your conveyancing pack should include both documents. If you arranged an extension yourself during ownership, you should have the deed of variation or new lease.

The Land Registry title register is the safest single check: any extension recorded against the title appears there. If the title register shows the original term only (no extension), and you have not extended yourself, then the lease length is calculated from the original commencement date as in Step 4.

Ask the Managing Agent or Freeholder

If you would prefer not to download the title register from HM Land Registry yourself, asking your managing agent or freeholder is the main alternative. They deal with the lease day-to-day and usually know the term, and can confirm it informally without you needing to access any documents online or pay the £7 Land Registry fee.

This route works best where you have an existing relationship with the agent (paying service charges, attending residents' meetings) and a clear contact channel. The information you receive is typically given by phone or email rather than from a formal document, so it is worth treating their answer as a confirmation rather than the primary source. Where the figure quoted by the agent is the only one being relied on, a £7 Land Registry check is still the safer back-up.

If you are paying ground rent, the ground rent demands you receive may also reference the lease details and can help confirm what the agent or freeholder tells you. Service charge accounts and building insurance schedules sometimes reference the lease term too.

Be aware that managing agents change over time. The agent who currently handles the building may not have the original records. The freeholder is more likely to have the underlying documentation, but is also more likely to be slow to respond if they are not actively involved in day-to-day management.

Avoid Guesses and Estimates

Common ways the lease length gets misstated, all of which cost money or trust at sale time:

"Long lease" in the listing. Marketing language with no precise meaning. Buyers and lenders need a number. Ask your agent for the exact lease length and require it in any property listing.
Online lease length calculators without verification. Useful for rough planning, not for the actual figure. Always cross-reference against the Land Registry title register for the exact number.
Memory-based assumptions. "I think it was about 90 years when I bought it" is rarely precise enough for a sale. Mortgage lenders, surveyors and buyers' solicitors all want the exact figure.
Estimates from the previous owner or estate agent. These can drift and are sometimes misremembered. Confirm independently.

For a sale, the figure that matters is the one a buyer's solicitor will independently verify against the Land Registry. Starting with the same source, and the correct calculation from the commencement date, removes any surprise mid-sale.

Understanding the Numbers

What Different Lease Lengths Mean for Selling

Not all short leases create the same problems. Here is a rough guide to what different remaining terms typically mean in practice.

125 years or more

No concerns relating to lease length. Buyers and mortgage lenders will not raise any issues. The flat can be sold in the normal way through an estate agent. The lease term is unlikely to be a factor in the sale at all.

90 to 124 years

Still comfortably within the range most lenders will accept. A small number of lenders may have specific requirements, but the lease length should not be a significant obstacle to sale. Standard marketing through an estate agent is suitable.

80 to 89 years

The lease is approaching the 80-year threshold, below which the cost of extending increases substantially. Most lenders will still lend at this level, but buyers and their solicitors may raise the lease as a concern. It is worth considering an extension before the lease drops below 80 years if possible.

70 to 79 years

Below 80 years, marriage value applies to any lease extension, making it more expensive. Many mortgage lenders will not lend on a flat with fewer than 70 to 75 years remaining, which begins to restrict the buyer pool significantly. Selling is still possible, but the number of buyers able to proceed without a lease extension in place is reduced.

60 to 69 years

Most mainstream mortgage lenders will not lend at this level. The realistic buyer pool is limited to cash buyers or investors, and those buying with the intention of extending the lease immediately after purchase. Achieving open market value through an estate agent becomes difficult.

Fewer than 60 years

Very few mortgage lenders will consider a flat at this level. The property is effectively a cash-only sale. The cost of extending the lease, if the leaseholder qualifies, will be substantial, and the market value of the flat will reflect the limited buyer pool. A specialist cash buyer is often the most practical route to sale.

The Critical Point

Why 80 Years Is Such an Important Threshold

The 80-year mark is the most significant milestone in leasehold law. Understanding why matters if you are considering your options.

Under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, qualifying leaseholders have a statutory right to extend their lease by 90 years at a peppercorn ground rent. The cost of doing so, the premium paid to the freeholder, is calculated using a formula that takes into account the current lease length, the property value, the ground rent, and a capitalisation rate.

When the lease has more than 80 years remaining, the premium reflects only the freeholder's loss of ground rent income and the value of the reversion (what they get when the lease eventually expires). When the lease drops below 80 years, an additional element known as marriage value is added to the calculation.

Marriage value is the increase in the property's total value that results from the lease being extended. A flat worth £250,000 with 75 years remaining might be worth £280,000 once the lease is extended to 165 years, a marriage value of £30,000. The leaseholder must pay the freeholder 50 percent of this uplift as part of the extension premium. On a typical London flat, this can easily add £10,000 to £30,000 or more to the cost of an extension compared with extending above 80 years.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 includes a provision to abolish marriage value, which would benefit leaseholders below 80 years. As of early 2026 that provision is not yet in force; the secondary legislation has not been made. Treat any future abolition as a possible bonus, not a planning assumption: plan around the law as it currently stands.

The practical implication: if your lease is currently between 80 and 90 years, it is worth considering an extension sooner rather than later. Every year the lease counts down through this range, the future extension cost increases. Once it crosses below 80 years, the cost increases more sharply.

Your Options

What to Do If Your Lease Is Short

If you have found that your lease is short, there are several routes available depending on your circumstances and priorities.

Option 1: Extend the lease before selling

If you qualify for a statutory lease extension, extending before you sell can substantially increase the pool of buyers and the achievable price. As of 31 January 2025, the previous two-year ownership requirement no longer applies, so the right is available from the day you become the registered owner. The process involves instructing a specialist solicitor and a RICS-accredited surveyor to serve a formal notice on the freeholder and negotiate the premium.

This route takes time, typically six to twelve months, and involves upfront costs for the solicitor, surveyor, and the premium itself. If your lease is still above 80 years, extending now rather than waiting will usually save money on the premium. If it has already dropped below 80 years, the cost will be higher but an extension may still improve the sale outcome compared with selling with a short lease.

Option 2: Sell with the lease as it stands and negotiate

Some buyers, typically investors or developers, are willing to purchase a short-lease flat and deal with the extension themselves after completion. In this case, the buyer will factor the cost of the extension into their offer, which means you will receive less than open market value. The upside is that you avoid the time and cost of the extension process yourself.

This approach is more straightforward when the lease still has 60 or more years remaining. Below this level, very few buyers can obtain mortgage finance, and the negotiation becomes more difficult because the buyer is taking on more risk and cost.

Option 3: Sell to a specialist cash buyer

A specialist cash buyer does not need mortgage finance and can therefore purchase a flat regardless of the lease length. This is often the most practical option when the lease is very short (below 70 years), when previous attempts to sell on the open market have failed, or when you need to sell quickly without the delay of a lease extension.

The offer will be below open market value, reflecting the complications involved. However, for sellers who have been unable to sell through any other route, a cash buyer can provide a clear and certain path to completion. We have been buying short-lease flats since 2003 and understand the legal and valuation complexities involved.

For more on the cost calculation including marriage value, see our marriage value guide. For a fuller view of sale routes, see the options hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find out how many years are left on my lease?

The most straightforward method is to check your original lease document, which states the start date and total term. Subtract the years elapsed to get the remaining term. You can also search the HM Land Registry title register for your property for a fee of £7, which usually shows the lease term and start date. Alternatively, ask your managing agent or freeholder, or instruct a solicitor to carry out a title search.

Does the lease start from when I bought the flat?

No. The lease term runs from the original commencement date stated in the lease, regardless of how many times the property has changed hands. If the lease was granted in 1985 for 99 years, it expires in 2084 whether the current owner bought the flat in 1990, 2010 or last week. Counting from your purchase date is one of the most common errors and gives a misleading lease length.

What is the minimum lease length for a mortgage?

Most mortgage lenders require at least 70 years remaining on the lease at the point of application, though many prefer significantly more. A mortgage typically runs for 25 years and, lenders want the lease to extend well beyond the end of the mortgage term. In practice, a lease with fewer than 85 years remaining may already cause problems with some lenders, so it is worth checking the specific requirements of any lender involved in a sale.

Why is 80 years such an important threshold?

When a lease falls below 80 years, the cost of extending it increases significantly because of a legal concept called marriage value. Marriage value is the increase in the property's value that results from the lease extension itself, and leaseholders must share half of this with the freeholder once the lease drops below 80 years. This can add thousands of pounds to the cost of an extension and makes the flat harder to sell on the open market. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 includes a provision to abolish marriage value, but as of early 2026 that provision is not yet in force.

How will I know if the lease has already been extended?

An extension is usually recorded on the title register at HM Land Registry, either as a deed of variation or as a new replacement lease. When you check the title register (which costs £7 from gov.uk), look for any entries dated after the original lease grant: a deed of variation will reference the lease being amended, and a new lease will replace the original. If you have purchased the flat with an extended lease in place, your conveyancing pack should include a copy of the extension document.

Can I sell a flat with a short lease?

Yes, but your options are more limited. Most mortgage buyers cannot purchase a flat with fewer than 70 to 80 years on the lease, which rules out a large proportion of buyers on the open market. You may be able to negotiate with a buyer who plans to extend the lease after purchase, but this is not straightforward. A specialist cash buyer is often the most practical route for sellers with a short lease who need a reliable and timely sale.

How much does a lease extension cost?

The cost varies considerably depending on the property value, current lease length, ground rent, and the freeholder's approach. As a rough guide, extending a lease on a flat worth £300,000 with 75 years remaining might cost between £10,000 and £20,000 in premium, plus solicitor and surveyor fees on both sides. If the lease has already dropped below 80 years, the premium will be higher due to marriage value. A specialist leasehold solicitor or RICS surveyor can provide a more accurate estimate based on your specific circumstances.

Do I have the right to extend my lease?

In most cases, yes. Under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, qualifying leaseholders have a statutory right to extend their lease by 90 years at a peppercorn ground rent. The two-year qualifying period was abolished by the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, effective 31 January 2025, so the right is available from the day you become the registered owner. The process involves serving a formal notice on the freeholder and negotiating the premium, usually with the help of a specialist solicitor and a RICS-accredited surveyor. Some leases are excluded from the statutory process, so it is worth confirming your position with a solicitor before proceeding.