There has long been debate over which fares better: leasehold or freehold homes. But first, how are they different? A freehold property means you own both the home and the land outright, with full responsibility for maintenance.
Leasehold, by contrast, gives you ownership for a fixed term - ususally 99, 125, 250 or 999 years. You don’t own the land; it belongs to a freeholder. When the lease expires, ownership returns to them. Around 70% of leaseholds are flats, with leaseholds making up an estimated 19% of the housing stock. Leaseholders often pay service charges for shared areas like hallways and gardens, contribute to repair funds for major works, and may also pay ground rent.
In recent years these ownership structures have led to clear differences in demand. The divergence between freehold and leasehold properties in terms of time to sell first emerged around 2017-18, coinciding with the slowdown in the London housing market and, most notably, the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
New fire safety rules and cladding regulations were introduced to buildings nationwide in the wake of the devastating fire, which made many leasehold transactions significantly more complicated. At the same time, rising service charges started to dampen buyers’ appetite for flats, compounded by stricter mortgage affordability rules introduced by lenders.
Currently, freehold homes are selling on average 57 days faster, while the number of leasehold homes successfully sold has fallen to an 18-year low. When we break this down by stage of the sale, the differences become even clearer. Our research shows that freehold homes typically go under offer and reach completion faster than leasehold homes. This year, freehold homes have taken a median of 60 days between being listed and an offer being accepted, compared to 83 days for a leasehold property.
After an offer is accepted, leasehold transactions take longer to reach the exchange of contracts. In 2025, freehold homes have taken an average of 100 days to exchange, compared to 133 days for leasehold homes. This delay can be largely explained by the extra paperwork involved and the fact that sellers are more likely to be part of a property chain.
The gap in the total time to sell the two different property types peaked at a total of 64 days in 2022. This is when the Covid-induced “race for space” was at its height, and buyers were overwhelmingly seeking larger houses with more room and outdoor space. Although the gap has narrowed slightly in the past few years, it remains high compared to historic norms. This suggests that there has been a longer-term shift in buyer behaviour.
Indeed, freehold homes account for the vast majority of completed house sales. By examining 2025 Land Registry data, we can see that 78.4% of all completions have been freehold, compared to only 21.6% for leasehold. This is the lowest proportion in more than 18 years and is down from a figure of 25.8% a decade ago.
It's not just about how long a property takes to sell; our analysis also highlights notable differences in the prices achieved for freehold and leasehold homes. Freehold properties typically sell for closer to their initial asking price. This year, the average offer accepted for freehold homes was 95.7% of the original asking price, compared to the leasehold figure of 94.2%.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 is now law – but is far from being fully implemented. While the government has removed the requirement for a flat owner to have lived in a property for two years before being able to extend their lease, wider reforms, such as overhauling ground rents and service charges, are slower coming.
A white paper published in March outlined the government’s plans to ban the sale of new leasehold flats and make commonhold the default property tenure for new flats in England and Wales. Commonhold involves homeowners owning a share of and having greater control over the buildings in which they live.
