r/UKRealEstate

I own a flat as a leasehold, worth ~£500-550k. Its lease expires in 2113 - in 93 years. I am thinking of selling it in the next 2-5 years.

2 options I see:

1. Extend it with the freeholder, assuming ~1 year to make sure it can be done on time before I even put it on the market. I could start anytime, and am not sure if waiting makes it worse.

2. Leave it as something the next buyer should do, and sell with the lease as is.

#1 costs me money (expecting £10k?). #2 likely costs me property value, but I don't know if that's more or less than the cost of doing it myself. Am I better off taking a <£10k hit on the valuation and not having to deal with all that paperwork, or would a ~90 year left on the lease be a major blocker when selling the flat?

PS: and is there a benefit to extending to 990 years instead of 90 years (again, cost vs impact on sale)?

Hello, Reddit newbie here who could do with some advice for buying our next house please...

I'm from the UK born and bred. I made the mistake of buying my 240m2 ocean view house here in the Garden Route, South Africa in 2022 after two different enjoyable month long well earned vacations here. I moved in in August 2023. I regret it for soooo many reasons, enough is enough. My fault.

However, I am getting ready to sell up and move back home to the UK with my fiancee, who is from elsewhere in Africa. She's never set foot in the UK despite having nieces and nephews here. We are a solid couple and I will prepare her as much as possible.

What we need to buy outright, is a detached house or detached Bungalow of 90 m2 or a bit bigger with any luck. 3 bedrooms that is located in a decent community that would be receptive to a mixed race couple, because with the asylum seekers and illegals arriving daily from Dover, plus the horrific xenophobia over here, I don't want to go from the frying pan into the fire so to speak.

I lived in Shepperton, Surrey for 21 years before departing for SA. Born and raised in west London. I am sociable and outgoing unlike my stereotypes. I no longer have the funds necessary to spend over £600k to live in Shepperton. I wouldn't want to live in West London if I had the money.

Can £220,000 or close to that buy us the right house in the right location do you think? (on Rightmove, we looked at Heanor, close to the Peak District, Grantham, Northumberland, Near to Edinburgh and Glasgow and a number of other places that look great on paper hypothetically!

We don't want to hear traffic noise from living near a busy road... 21 years living near the constant noise of the M3 and Heathrow jets overhead was bad enough thanks :-)

The reality is that we don't know what most new to us areas are like to live in, or any suggested areas that you lovely people may be able to point us in the direction of?

We can both work from home in our own micro businesses, so no commuting.

A good EPC would be advantageous to keep the bills low plus access to public transport because my fiancee doesn't yet drive on those rare occasions when I'm not driving or riding my motorbike with her. A community vibe would be great.

Sorry to write so much, it's just that we don't know who else to turn to, and we would humbly appreciate your kind help, TIA.

One too many 'made' in the topic, sorry

I get that:

- auction = has to be cash buyer, but given their locations they're cheaper than 1 bed studios sold at auctions

- I have seen offers from landlords, in the same building, renting them out to professionals, they're just then responsible to pay council tax, but only for that single unit, checked the band and it's A.

- those auctions don't specify any monthly payments for the common areas. There are no legal packs attached, just home reports? But monthly payments cannot be too high, right, given how many flats they have crowded into those buildings?

- do you think each separate unit has a separate meter?

- maybe it's because banks won't ever lend on that, period, whereas with many standard auction properties that's not the case (unless above a takeaway, or in a council owned majority building)

What am I missing? Asking out of curiosity. If I were thinking of buying I'd just speak with solicitor.

It cannot be as simple as buy it, pay cash, and have a studio flat in central Glasgow for 35k, in exchange for some noise and monthly upkeep fees, which gives you access to shared free gym and living areas

UK estate agents, what do you actually use for your website and lead management? Mostly seeing US-focused tools (Zillow/Realtor.com integrations) when I look this up, curious what the UK setup actually looks like, or if people just cobble together separate tools.

It feels like I'm continuously banging my head against a wall trying to sell my house.

Nice, three bed detached house - nothing major that needs doing to it. Nice area.

We've been trying to sell for eight months to get closer to family before our next child arrives. We have had a few people looking round. Many have come back with stupid reasons why they don't like it - wishing it had four bedrooms not three, not liking our choice of paint colour, disliking where it is etc. Things that make me question why they even wasted our time in the first place? Several really really liked it (or so we were told) but then messed us around, stringing us on for weeks before eventually not offering.

We changed estate agents nearly two months ago and finally got a viewing last week. The viewers loved it - literally put an offer in within an hour of viewing!

House is up for £385. Offer was £360. Not going to lie, our hearts sank a little. We tried to negotiate up. They came up to £365. Estate agents asked if they could go to £370 as we told them we would accept this. Answer was no. Then they withdrew their offer of £365 because we had asked for £370.

It felt like a massive kick in the teeth as the house is not overpriced initially. However, looking at the current situation we had already planned to lower to £375 anyway before we got the viewing so after a lot of discussions, my husband and I decided that we would accept £365. It's been eight months after all and we just want to get the ball rolling as we want to get pregnant again.

Today the estate agent got in touch with them and asked them to put their offer back on the table. You would think they would bite our hand off. Instead they told them that they 'need to think about it'.

I'm really fed up and I don't really understand what we did wrong.

Or is it best to leave that bit out? Do they just automatically assume that first time buyers will be living in the property? Or is it best to be honest about this so they can tell the sellers? And then does this affect their decision when choosing from all the offers? Not sure if this is seen as a negative thing..

Unpopular opinion: UK property websites tell you almost everything about the house and almost nothing about the area.
You can see:

1. Floor plans
2. EPC ratings
3. Number of bedrooms

But the things that often determine whether someone actually enjoys living there are much harder to find:
How safe is the area?

Is public transport actually usable?

Are there decent amenities nearby?

Is the neighbourhood improving or declining?

Would you want to live there long-term?

A few of us have been building Zonely to tackle this problem by turning postcode data into a simple Civic Score.
Before we go further, I'm curious:
If you could see ONE metric for every UK postcode that isn't currently easy to find, what would it be?

Hello!

I'm currently buying a house and selling a house at the same time, and I think my solicitors might be rinsing me. They were recommended by a colleague for being really good and on the ball, so I asked them for a quote and it seemed relatively okay. I didn't get quotes from other places, as everyone else I asked could only tell me what solicitors to avoid at all costs, so I sort of just gave it a google / asked Claude (lol) to see how it stacked up against the averages for the area. It seemed alright and inline ish with what others paid, maybe a touch high. Can't say not getting other quotes was my brightest idea.

Fast forward to being half way through the process, and the additional fees are absolutely astronomical! I'm getting charged £395 for a Gifted Deposit AML check, and possibly a £325 per person charge for source of funds verifications which sound an awful lot like what my £45pp AML checks are doing.. We've not even got a complex process, just savings and this one gift which we were given about 8 months ago.

So far, they've added potentially £1,800 on to our estimate in additional fees. Some of which we knew and were just in the small print at the bottom of the estimate like acting for mortgage lender and so on.. but some of them are completely out of the blue, ie "Oh here's some forms to sign and some money to pay for us to crack on with it.. oh and here's a list of additional fees just so you know".. We're sitting at about £7.5K for selling a £425K house, and buying an £800K house.

TLDR: What have your solicitors been charging you guys for selling and buying.. and did it balloon up with additional expenses?

I can't imagine there's much I can do now, we're half way through with contracts signed and such and I'd rather not start the whole process again with anyone cheaper as the amount these lot will probably charge me will likely make the whole ordeal the same price as if I stuck with them.

Thanks in advance! :)

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North Finchley Buy-to-Let / Investment Opportunity

Modern 1-bedroom apartment in a well-connected North Finchley location, suitable for investors seeking a straightforward London buy-to-let with strong rental demand and long-term upside.

Key details

• Guide price: £370,000
• Estimated rent: c. £1,700 pcm (£20,400 pa)
• Gross yield: c. 5.5%
• Lease: 119 years remaining
• Service charge: c. £2,000 pa
• Ground rent: £300 pa

Investment highlights

• Strong rental demand from young professionals and commuters
• Good transport links into Central London via the Northern Line
• Modern, low-maintenance apartment
• Long lease
• Attractive North London location with ongoing regeneration and long-term growth potential
• Suitable for buy-to-let investors looking for income plus future capital appreciation

The flat is currently owner-occupied and would suit a landlord looking for a well-located North London asset in an established rental market.

Further information available on request, including rental evidence, lease information and sales particulars.

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to buy a flat in London and recently viewed a property on a private, unadopted road in Beckenham, south London. The flat itself is nice and the location is excellent, being close to both the train station and local shops.

However, I'm hesitant about the road. It's unadopted, has no pavement and appears to be in poor condition, with potholes and uneven surfaces. If I lived there, I'd either be driving along a road that may require ongoing maintenance or walking on it in the dark, through mud and puddles, which doesn't seem particularly appealing.

I'm also aware that, because the road is privately maintained, residents could be responsible for future repair and maintenance costs rather than the council. That raises concerns about both the potential financial liability and the long-term attractiveness of the property.

Has anyone lived on or bought a property on an unadopted road? Would this put you off as a buyer, or am I overthinking it? I'd be interested to hear your experiences and whether you think this could affect the property's value or saleability in the future.