Short Leases - beware!
An interesting case this week for a leasehold property, where the remaining lease was down to 68 years. It appears that this is now a very tricky area, with lenders and surveyors preferring leases of 85 years or more.
This might still be doable from a mortgage perspective but expect the dreaded 'subject to surveyors comments' alarm bell to ring if the lease term remaining is under 85 years, so simply put it's russian roulette.
Even the lenders that say they could consider shorter leases are backtracking, so beware, if your lease is under 85 years and you are thinking of selling your property, you may have trouble with anything but cash buyers.
For purchasers the advice is clear - leases under 85 years will create future resaleability issues, even if you are able to arrange a mortgage to buy now!
