Today marked the King’s first opening of Parliament. Within his speech new leasehold reform was detailed in line with the proposed Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill (the Bill) expected to be brought to Parliament in the coming months.

King Charles III also reasserted the government’s commitment to make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to buy the freehold of a property and to end “punitive” service charges.

The Bill delivers the government’s manifesto commitments on leasehold reform addressing fairness in the housing market. It is intended to make long-term and necessary changes to improve home ownership for millions of leaseholders in England and Wales.

These reforms build on the success of the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rents) 2022 which put an end to ground rents for new leases.

It is likely the reforms will:

• make it easier for leaseholders to extend their lease with the standard lease extension term being 990 years instead of 90 years
• reduce how much leaseholders pay in ground rent on existing leases to a peppercorn
• changes to ownership requirements for leaseholders to access these changes such as removing the requirement to own a property for two years.

The legislation is intended to improve leaseholder’s consumers rights in:

• buying or selling their property making it easier to acquire the freehold
• requiring transparency over service charges
• building on the legislation brought forward by the Building Safety Act 2022 ensuring freeholders and developers are unable to escape their liabilities to fund remediation work.

How Capsticks can help

Our Housing and Regeneration lawyers are experts in shared ownership, we provide advice on everything from setting up shared ownership schemes and new build plot sales to shared equity and financing. 

 If you have any questions around what is discussed in this insight, please contact Alexandra Aristidou or Nalton Stembari.