Selling A Short Lease Flat in Marylebone

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If you’re the owner of a leasehold flat in the Marylebone neighbourhood of central London, it’s likely that you have a short lease, which means less than 70 or 80 years left on the agreement. Should you be thinking about selling this type of property, you should be aware that there might be a few challenges involved, but this guide shows how you can still sell for a fast and fair offer.

1. Identifying short lease flats in London’s Marylebone neighbourhood
2. Explaining why Marylebone has so many short lease flats
3. Short lease flats in Marylebone may be viewed as less valuable properties
4. Choices for how to resolve a short lease at your Marylebone flat
5. Four methods to find a buyer for your Marylebone flat with a short lease
6. Our answers to sellers’ questions about Marylebone short lease flats

Identifying short lease flats in London’s Marylebone neighbourhood

Located within the central London City of Westminster, Marylebone is considered part of the West End and is often in high demand for people seeking to buy leasehold or freehold homes.

The district’s unusual name derives from the fact that when the area was a village, it was named after a small stream of St Mary, as the Anglo-Saxon word “burne” meant small stream. The diverse neighbourhood features plenty of houses and flats, along with commercial and other premises, including the popular Marylebone Village high street with independent restaurants, shops and more.

Many of the properties in Marylebone are considered to be leasehold with short leases. With a freehold home, whoever owns it has outright legal ownership, including the property and the land on which it was constructed. A leasehold home, for example a flat, only gives ownership of the unit to the leaseholder for a set number of years, as specified in the lease agreement.

The lease agreement not only says how long it runs for but also details other terms, including how much the leaseholder will pay the freeholder in ground rent and service charges.

A lease is considered to be short if it has less than 70 years remaining, although in some cases a lease agreement can be seen as short if it has less than 80 years to go. Regular lease agreements are those set at either 99 or 125 years, or sometimes even longer than that.

Explaining why Marylebone has so many short lease flats

Similar to other parts of London, Marylebone is known for having far more short lease flats than elsewhere in the UK, and that’s largely due to the historic property ownership in the area.

Throughout London, dukes and others bought up land in the 18th century and started to develop it as a mix of properties. This included flats, and many of these homes were established as short lease agreements from the start, rather than longer leases that may be used today.

A prominent Marylebone example of this type of property is the Howard de Walden estate, which covers 95 acres and more than 800 properties in the area. There are five categories of property included in the estate: educational, medical, offices, residential and retail, the latter covers restaurants. Many of these properties have lease agreements, and a large number are considered to be short.

Even if some of those lease agreements that were initially approved for flats in Marylebone were regular – meaning they were set to run for 99 or 125 years or more – enough time has now passed that there could be fewer than 70 or 80 years left on the lease, making them short.

Short lease flats in Marylebone may be viewed as less valuable properties

If you are the owner of a short lease flat in Marylebone, you should be aware that this type of property might be seen by some buyers as less valuable than others.

One reason for this is that short leases create much more uncertainty for potential future owners about how long they’ll be able to live in and own the flat. For example, if your lease only has 50 years left on it and you are attempting to sell your home, you might find that buyers are not interested because they’re concerned it will be impossible to get a lease extension.

Although there are options for extending a lease or buying the freehold outright, as detailed in the next section of this guide, many buyers might think that the process of trying to secure either outcome could involve a lot more cost and time than they are willing to invest.

You should also be aware that many mortgage providers might be hesitant to approve a potential buyer’s request for a loan to fund the purchase of your property. And if the buyer could only afford for flat with that mortgage, this means that the sale will not be able to happen.

The reason why a lender could be wary is that they will be concerned that it will be difficult or even impossible to re-sell the home if they need to in the future. If a buyer defaults on their monthly mortgage repayments, a lender can eventually move to repossess and sell the property, hoping to use the proceeds from the sale to recoup the outstanding amount on the home loan. But they may reject the loan if they think that such a future sale would be hard.

Choices for how to resolve a short lease at your Marylebone flat

After reading through this guide, if you have determined that your Marylebone flat has a short lease, there are few different strategies that you could consider pursuing. You could ask your freeholder for an extension to the existing lease, you could attempt to buy the freehold ownership of the flat outright, or you might end up deciding to sell the home with no changes.

Choosing the right one for your situation will depend on your unique requirements, for example your financial needs, whether you want to move home, and more, so review them carefully.

Asking the freeholder for a lease extension

One possibly approach that you can take is to get in contact with the freehold owner of the flat and ask them whether they might be willing to negotiate an extension to the duration of the lease. This would extend it past the 99 year mark, so that it’s considered a regular long lease.

But there is no requirement for the freeholder to automatically agree to a lease extension. And the process of attempt to extend a lease can be lengthy and involve a lot of costs, so it’s not an ideal choice for those homeowners who have a limited budget for choosing their next steps.

Attempting to buy the freehold of the property

Alternatively, you could ask the freeholder if they are open to selling the freehold to the property. This would eliminate any issues with a short lease because, if you bought the freehold of the home, you would now be the freeholder and the rules of a leasehold flat would no longer apply.

Yet there are drawbacks and hurdles involved with this solution as well, including the fact that the freeholder may have no interest in selling their ownership. And even if they do agree to sell, the price they ask could be far beyond whatever you might be able to afford for it.

Selling the flat without pursuing any changes

If you have reviewed the options of seeking a lease extension or asking to buy the freehold of your flat outright and have decided that neither strategy will work for your circumstances, you could also simply decide to sell your home in its current state with the short lease.

Although this will still include some potential barriers with finding a buyer, you still have solutions available that can result in you getting a competitive and speedy offer for your flat even with a short lease left. For example, you could sell to a quick home buyer like LDN Properties that has lots of experience with buying short lease flats in London. These companies never charge sellers any commission and the selling timeline is often just a few short weeks. The next section of this guide offers more details on selling this way, as well as other options for finding a buyer.

Four methods to find a buyer for your Marylebone flat with a short lease

If you have decided to sell your Marylebone flat as is with its short lease and not seek an extension or try to buy the freehold, you have a few options for how to proceed.

You could sell by getting in touch with a legitimate no-fee quick home buying company, such as LDN Properties, or you could sell via an estate agent, attempt to sell without any help, or try your luck with a property auction. All of these methods have unique advantages and disadvantages in terms of time taken, cost and more, so review them before making a choice.

Selling to a quick home buying company

Quick buyers are companies like LDN Properties, launched in 2003, that make fast and fair offers to buy a wide range of freehold and leasehold homes, including flats with short leases. They never charge commission and the buying process often takes just a few short weeks.

Start by calling them to describe your flat, and in less than an hour they should be able to make a tentative competitive offer for buying the property. If you accept that offer, they’ll next send a representative to your home to assess the interior and exterior before the company makes its final offer. And if you accept the final offer, the quick buyer works speedily with your solicitor or other legal representative to complete the sale, all just weeks after you first get in touch.

In addition to often being much faster than the three other typical methods of selling, you will also be able to keep your expenses low if you sell to an honest no-fee quick buyer. This would ensure that you also get to receive the entire proceeds from the sale of your short lease flat.

Selling via an estate agent

You will not need to put much effort into selling your short lease flat if you use an estate agent, because they will be responsible for most of the important steps. This includes creating a listing that describes your flat and includes photographs of it, advertising the listing, arranging viewings for potential buyers to see the property in person, hearing offers and trying to get one to a sale.

In exchange for putting in all of this work, an estate agent will charge you commission if they succeed in selling your flat. This fee would cause your selling expenses to rise because it will be subtracted from the eventual sale proceeds. If you are looking to reduce your costs as one of your top priorities with selling, you should consider no-fee options like using a quick buyer.

Selling with an estate agent can also take a long time, sometimes many months or even more than a full year. And a buyer could make a genuine offer for your flat but later change their mind and cancel it, causing the sale to collapse. They can do this without penalty if contracts are not yet exchanged. If that happens, you’d then need to start over seeking a buyer, delaying a sale.

You should also ask individual estate agents whether they have any experience with selling short lease flats, because if they don’t, this implies they may struggle to sell your property.

Selling without any help

A low-cost way that you attempt to sell your flat is without any assistance, although this can be time-consuming and stressful because you will have to handle all aspects of the sale from producing and advertising a listing to scheduling viewings and hearing offers.

The only clear benefit of selling this way is that you would not have to pay any commission on the sale, which will assist in limiting your expenses. But you could discover that any saving you make this way is wiped out by the costs you’ll incur on the other tasks involved with selling.

Selling on your own can also be among the slowest ways to find a buyer, and it could take a number of months or even more than an entire year before you sell. Remember also that someone can make an honest offer to buy your flat but then later decide against it and withdraw the offer. This would cause the sale to fall apart, and the person that cancelled the other cannot be penalised if you have not already exchanged contracts. You would then need to begin again with looking for a buyer, which could end up extending your selling schedule much longer.

Selling at a property auction

Just as an estate agent handles most of the main work involved with selling a short lease flat, the same is true with an auctioneer. They will produce and market a listing for your property, host the auction, and oversee the final stages if your flat manages to sell at the auction.

For putting in all of this effort, you will have to pay the auctioneer commission and this will be subtracted immediately from the sale proceeds, causing your expenses to increase. You might be able to ask the auctioneer to have the winning bidder pay a share of your costs, and if the auctioneer agrees to this then that can be one way to slightly reduce your expenses.

Selling at an auction can be a slow process that takes many months from the start to the finish. And there’s also no promise that your home will sell. If your flat fails to find a buyer at the auction, you would then need to begin again with searching for a new buyer. This could end up adding several more months or potentially even more time than that to your selling schedule.

It’s also a good idea to inquire whether specific auctioneers have had past success with selling short lease Marylebone flats because if they do not, they may not know how to sell your home.

✅ How do I know whether my Marylebone flat has a short lease?

Leasehold flats are properties where the leaseholder owns the unit for a set number of years as designated in the lease agreement that they sign with the freeholder, who is the outright owner of the home. A lease is considered to be short if there are under 70 or 80 years remaining on it, compared to a typical lease agreement that might run for 99 or 125 years, or even longer.

✅ Why are there so many flats with short leases in Marylebone?

Similar to other prominent parts of London, much of the land and property in Marylebone was developed starting in the 1700s by families or estates. The properties constructed included many flats, and a significant number started with short leases. Even those that originated with long leases are now considered short leases because of how much time has gone by.

✅ What are the challenges involved with selling a Marylebone short lease flat?

Short lease flats are often seen by many prospective buyers as being less valuable than long lease flats, because there’s a reduced time for ownership and also uncertainty about the ability to extend the lease in the future. That’s the same reason that mortgage lenders are wary about providing home loans to buy short lease flats, which adds another complication to selling.

✅ Is selling my Marylebone flat the only option if I have a short lease?

No, beyond trying to find a buyer for your short lease flat you could also attempt to ask the freehold owner of the property to grant you an extension on the lease agreement, which would increase the number of years left on it. Or you could ask to buy the freehold outright, but both of these options might be very expensive and take a long time, and the freeholder could say no.

✅ What options can I choose from for selling my short lease Marylebone flat?

The four typical methods for selling a property are getting in touch with a no-commission quick home buyer such as LDN Properties, selling using the services of an estate agent, selling without any help, or selling at a property auction. Take time to research the pros and cons of all four approaches, for example whether they charge fees, before making a final choice.

✅ Which method for selling my short lease flat in Marylebone is the quickest?

You will find that selling to a quick buyer like LDN Properties is often the speediest selection, because the process should only take a handful of weeks, and that includes the exchange of contracts and paying you the total sale proceeds. Selling with the support of an auctioneer or estate agent, or selling without any third-party help, can often take at least several months.

✅ Will I need to pay commission when selling my Marylebone short lease flat?

Only if you decide to sell your flat through an estate agent or an auctioneer, as those two methods will charge you commission that will increase your costs because it will be taken out of the final sale proceeds. But if you sell your home on your own or via a zero-commission quick home buyer such as LDN Properties then you will not have to pay any fees on the sale.