Propertymark has issued its Leasehold “Still a Life Sentence” survey in partnership with the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and the National Leasehold Campaign to understand how the current leasehold changes have affected leaseholders and property agents in England and Wales.
In 2018, Propertymark released its Leasehold: A life sentence? report, which was a landmark piece of research delving into the issues experienced by leasehold property owners and helped garner support for legislative change.
Through continued campaigning, the UK government introduced the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act in June 2022, ending ground rent for most new long residential leases, and the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 which established an immediate ban on most new leasehold houses and continues to be rolled out with 14 sections enacted so far.
In July 2024, the King’s Speech outlined the Labour government’s plans at Westminster to publish draft legislation on additional measures for leasehold and commonhold reform. In light of this, campaigners now want to highlight the current issues facing leaseholders and the industry so that action can be taken to prioritise those that are impacting people the most.
While some action is being taken by the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 to make charges more transparent, Propertymark has said it is concerned that some of the other causes of rising costs, such as the slow pace of cladding remediation, are not being addressed.
Many leaseholders still feel trapped in their properties that they are unable to sell, and service charges continue to rise, especially for flats impacted by the cladding crisis. For property agents, rising service charges, escalating ground rents and cladding issues continue to prevent the sale of homes.
Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, said: “Propertymark is pleased to work once again with our colleagues from the National Leasehold Campaign and the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. Nearly seven years on from when our Leasehold: A Life Sentence? report made a considerable impression on legislative change, our members and leaseholders know that they still face many challenges.
“With the latest movement to improve the leasehold system, we hope that this survey can shed light on how we move forward and provide home buyers and sellers with greater protections and rights.”
Martin Boyd, chair of trustees at the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, commented: “The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership welcomes the Propertymark survey into the costs being faced by leaseholders and the problems that both consumers and estate agents now face when buying and selling leasehold homes.
“This new survey will give a very useful longitudinal comparator of what’s changed over the intervening years and provide insight at a critical time.”
Katie Kendrick, founder of the National Leasehold Campaign, added: “This follow-up survey is very timely in light of current outstanding reforms and the need to reinforce the message that urgency and delivery are needed. Evidence from our members indicates that very little has changed except that leases are reducing in length, ground rents are escalating, service charges have increased and premiums to extend or buy the freehold are escalating well beyond the means of most. Leaseholders cannot afford to wait any longer.
“The situation leaseholders are facing is worse than ever with many being left in a desperate situation, trapped with no way out.
“We urge all leaseholders to participate in this survey so that Propertymark can present hard data to the UK Government and generate change.”
The survey is split into questions for estate agents, management companies and leaseholders to provide an industry-wide and consumer perspective of leasehold, what has changed since 2018, what has improved and what has worsened.
All respondents can access the survey, here.
