Why the UK Is Preparing to Change Its Ancient Leasehold Laws

If you buy an apartment in England, the chances are you aren’t actually “buying” it at all. In most cases, you’re paying the real owner for the right to live there. “Leaseholds” are one of the oddest, and most contested, quirks of Britain’s ancient property laws. Critics who see them as a license for landlords to rip off their tenants have convinced the Labour government to overhaul the system. Here’s why campaign groups have called it an “end of history moment.”

Purchasing a lease confers the right to live in a property for a set number of years. The arrangement is different to a regular rental, known as an assured shorthold tenancy, as the term is generally far longer (between 21 and 999 years) and the tenant cannot be evicted unless they’ve breached the terms of the lease. They effectively “own” the property for that term, but not the land on which it’s built.