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Leasehold
What buying a leasehold actually costs
The extra work, the freeholder's fees and the one thing that decides the cost, told apart from the parts nobody sets a price for.
Buying a leasehold flat, or a leasehold house, costs more to convey than a freehold, and the gap is not padding. A leaseholder is buying a long tenancy with a landlord attached, so someone has to read the lease, ask the freeholder the right questions and settle the ground rent and service charge to the day. That is real work, and on top of it sits a set of fees the freeholder or the managing agent decides for themselves. This page separates the two: the parts anyone can pin a number to, and the parts nobody sets a price for.
Why the legal bill is higher than for a freehold
On a freehold, your conveyancer checks the title, runs the searches and registers you as the owner. On a leasehold, all of that still happens, and then the lease itself has to be read and reported on: how many years are left, what the ground rent is and whether it rises, what the service charge covers, and what the lease forbids, from subletting to keeping a pet. Your conveyancer also has to raise leasehold enquiries with the freeholder or the managing agent and wait for the answers. That is why almost every firm that publishes a price adds a leasehold supplement on top of its freehold fee. You can see those supplements, quoted from the firms' own pages, on the compare page.
The management pack, which the seller pays for
Before the sale can move, the seller has to buy an information pack from the freeholder or managing agent, sometimes called the LPE1 or the leasehold management pack. It is the file of answers your conveyancer needs: the service charge accounts, the buildings insurance, any major works planned, whether the ground rent has been paid. The freeholder or their agent sets the price of that pack, not the law, so it varies from one building to the next and there is no official figure to quote. It is the seller's cost, but it is worth knowing it exists, because a slow freeholder sitting on the pack is one of the most common reasons a leasehold sale drags.
The fees the freeholder charges you, after you complete
Once you own the flat, the lease usually requires you to tell the freeholder, and to pay them for the privilege of being told. These reach you as disbursements, paid on your behalf by your conveyancer and billed to you:
- A notice of transfer fee, to register you as the new leaseholder.
- A notice of charge fee, if you are buying with a mortgage, to register the lender's interest.
- A deed of covenant fee, where the lease makes you promise to keep its obligations directly.
- A certificate of compliance, where the freeholder has to confirm to the Land Registry that the lease terms were met before you can be registered.
Every one of these is set by the freeholder or the managing agent under the terms of the lease, not by any public body, so the amounts are all over the place and there is no honest single figure to publish. What matters is that they are real, they are yours to pay, and a good quote lists them rather than letting them appear on completion day.
The two things that decide the real cost: lease length and ground rent
Neither of these is a conveyancing fee, but either can cost far more than the legal bill, so they belong here. Lease length is the big one. A lease with plenty of years left is straightforward. As it drops toward eighty years lenders grow cautious, because below that an extension gets markedly dearer, so if you are buying a flat with a short lease the price of putting that right is part of what you are really paying. Ground rent is the other. A modest fixed ground rent is a footnote. A ground rent that doubles every so often, or climbs with an index, can make a flat hard to mortgage and hard to sell later, so it is worth reading the ground rent clause before you fall for the kitchen.
What has changed, and what has not yet
You no longer have to own a leasehold home for two years before you can extend the lease or buy the freehold. If you buy a flat with a short lease, you can now start a lease extension straight away rather than waiting the old two years. The wider reforms that would change what an extension costs, including the ground-rent cap and the end of marriage value, are still going through Parliament and are not law yet, so treat any figure you are quoted for an extension as provisional and check the current position.
Source: The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE), read 24 September 2026.
Where this sits on the whole bill
The leasehold supplement, the pack and the freeholder's fees all sit alongside the ordinary legal fee, the searches, the Land Registry fee and any stamp duty. The full breakdown, with every figure sourced, is on the conveyancing fees page.
Questions people ask
Why is leasehold conveyancing more expensive than freehold?
Because there is more to do and more people involved. Your conveyancer has to read and report on the lease, raise enquiries with the freeholder or managing agent and wait for the answers, on top of everything a freehold purchase needs. Most firms that publish a price show this as a leasehold supplement added to their freehold fee.
What is a leasehold management pack and who pays for it?
It is the file of answers about the building, the service charge, the insurance and any major works that your conveyancer needs before the sale can proceed, sometimes called the LPE1. The seller buys it from the freeholder or managing agent, who set the price, so there is no fixed figure for it.
What extra fees does the freeholder charge when you buy a leasehold?
Usually a notice of transfer fee, a notice of charge fee if you have a mortgage, and sometimes a deed of covenant fee or a certificate of compliance. Each is set by the freeholder or managing agent under the lease, not by law, so the amounts vary, and your conveyancer pays them on your behalf and bills you.
Should I worry about a short lease or the ground rent?
Both can matter more than the legal fee. Lenders grow cautious as a lease drops toward eighty years, because extending it gets dearer below that, and a ground rent that rises steeply can make a flat hard to mortgage or sell. Read both before you commit.