Why UK Wants to Overhaul Its Ancient ‘Leasehold’ Laws

If you buy an apartment in England, chances are you aren’t actually “buying” it at all. In most cases, you’re paying the real owner for the right to live there for a set period. “Leaseholds” are one of the oddest, and most contested, quirks of Britain’s ancient property laws. Critics who see them as a license for landlords to rip off their tenants have finally convinced the government to introduce legislation to overhaul the system. What’s promised, however, looks more like an evolution than a revolution.

Purchasing a lease confers the right to live in a property for a set number of years. The arrangement is different to a regular rental, known as an assured shorthold tenancy, as the term is generally far longer (between 21 and 999 years) and the tenant cannot be evicted unless they’ve breached the terms of the lease. They effectively “own” the property for that term, but not the land on which it’s built. The arrangement dates back to the period following the Norman invasion when the country’s new aristocracy began renting land for fixed periods to agricultural laborers, who would provide food and services to those higher up the social order in return. Leasehold ownership has grown since the 1950s as the number of new apartment buildings grew. Outright ownership wasn’t possible in the case of apartments as full “freehold” ownership requires a land boundary that’s visible on a map.