Leasehold Property law. Personally delivered.
Leasehold Property law. Personally delivered.
Lease extensions and enfranchisement — the position as at 26 July 2026. Reform has been promised, legislated for in part and consulted upon, but very little of it is law that applies to you today. Here is how the law reached its present state, and what it means for your own lease.
Reviewed 26 July 2026 · General information, not legal advice
Very little has actually changed so far as lease extensions and freehold purchases are concerned. Almost everything announced since 2024 is still waiting to be switched on, and the date on which that happens has not been fixed.
The headline changes leaseholders have read about — extensions of 990 years, the abolition of marriage value, a cap on ground rents in existing leases — are not law that applies to you today. This page sets out how the law reached its present state, what is genuinely in force, what is not, and what the realistic timetable looks like. It is dated, because it goes out of date.
Dates for future events are stated intentions or informed expectations, not commitments. Check the date at the top of this page before relying on it.
Leasehold reform is not new. It has arrived in instalments since the 1960s, each one extending rights rather than replacing the system — which is part of why the present exercise is proving difficult.
Leaseholders of houses were given the right to buy their freehold or to extend by fifty years. Flats were not covered at all, and residence and rateable value conditions restricted who could claim.
The foundation of the law as it still operates. Leaseholders of flats gained the right to a 90-year lease extension at a peppercorn ground rent, and the right to buy the freehold of their building collectively. Both remain subject to residence and low-rent tests at this stage.
The residence test was abolished and replaced with a two-year ownership requirement, and the low-rent test went. Buy-to-let and second-home owners came within the scheme. The Act also created the right to manage and introduced commonhold, which was then barely used.
Ground rent on new long residential leases was reduced to a peppercorn, from 30 June 2022 and from 1 April 2023 for retirement properties. It bit on the extended term of a voluntary lease extension, but it did nothing for existing leases — which is the gap the current Bill addresses.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024. More than two years later, one substantive enfranchisement provision has been commenced.
The one change that did land. Since 31 January 2025 there has been no minimum period of ownership before a lease extension claim can be made. A leaseholder who completed last month can serve notice as soon as they are registered as proprietor. It is a genuine improvement, and it is the only part of the 2024 Act’s enfranchisement package that currently applies.
The equivalent widening of the non-residential limit from 25% to 50% did commence for right to manage claims, on 3 March 2025. It did not commence for collective enfranchisement, and the two are frequently confused — including in published commentary.
A second piece of primary legislation is now required before the first can be brought into force. That is the essential point to understand about the present position.
This is the question every leaseholder asks, and it deserves an honest answer rather than a convenient one. For most people, on most facts, we advise proceeding under the law as it stands.
Waiting is a bet on a timetable you do not control. It can be the right bet. But it should be a decision taken on your own numbers, with a view on how long your lease can afford to wait — not a decision taken by default because reform is in the news.
We are happy to give you a view either way, and we will tell you plainly where we think waiting is the better course. The Leasehold Advisory Service also publishes neutral guidance for leaseholders weighing the same question.
Whether to act now or wait turns on your lease, your ground rent and your plans. None of that can be answered from a newspaper article, and all of it can be answered fairly quickly.
The date it was granted, the term originally granted, the ground rent payable and whether a sale, remortgage or estate administration is in prospect. We can obtain the title if you do not have it.
What a claim is likely to cost under the law as it stands, how close your lease is to the 80-year threshold, and the realistic effect the proposed reforms would have on your own figures.
If waiting is sensible, we will tell you how long your lease can afford to wait and what would change our advice. If it is not, we will say so and explain why.
Tell us about your lease and your plans, and we will give you a view on where you stand under the law as it is today, and what waiting for reform would mean for your own figures.
This page reflects our understanding of the position on 26 July 2026. It is general information and not legal advice, and it concerns a subject that is changing: dates given for future events are stated intentions or informed expectations rather than commitments. Take advice on your own lease and your own timing before deciding whether to proceed or to wait.
