Do you own a flat in Greenwich? Under the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act you have a right to extend the lease by an extra 90 years and reduce the ground rent to nothing. This is known as a statutory lease extension.
Homehold offer an “all in one” lease extension service which will look after your lease extension from instruction right through to the registration at the Land Registry.
We have significant experience working across the London Borough of Greenwich. Whether you’re in Eltham or Woolwich Arsenal, Abbey Wood or Westcombe Park – we can help!
Considering using Homehold for your lease extension in Greenwich?
Who in Greenwich can extend their lease?
Nearly all leaseholders of flats have a right to the 90-year extension. Certainly, if you’re looking to do a Greenwich Council Lease Extension, this will almost certainly be the case.
There is one potential exception:
If own the flat on a “shared ownership” basis where you own a proportion of your flat, but pay rent on the remaining part, you won’t have this right.
If you’re looking to do a Greenwich Council Lease Extension, then this point is unlikely to apply to you, as most of their flats were not let on a shared ownership basis.
The exception and rule of owning your flat for two years was removed on 31 January 2025.
How much does a lease extension cost?
When you do a lease extension you must a pay a “premium” to your freeholder to purchase the extra years and remove the ground rent.
This premium is essentially based on three things:
- The value of your flat, as though it was sold with an extended lease
- How many years you currently have on your lease (the shorter the lease, the more expensive it will be)
- How much ground rent you pay each year, and how it goes up over time
If your freeholder is the London Borough of Greenwich, then your flat will almost certainly still have above 80 years on your lease (this is the point it gets much more expensive to extend) and a £10 a year ground rent.
Often flats with private freeholders have shorter leases. For example, we’ve done a number of lease extensions in the Henry’s Wharf development, which is overlooking the Thames north of Woolwich Dockyard station. These flats were let from the 1990s on 99 year leases, and accordingly the cost of the lease extension is much higher.
You can get a rough estimate of the lease extension cost using our online calculator. However, we’ll be able to give you a more concrete position once we’ve done your valuation.
In addition to the premium, you need to pay your own legal and valuation costs and that of your freeholder.
What’s the lease extension process?
There is a process set out under the legislation for a statutory lease extension, and Homehold will follow this to the letter for your Greenwich Flat.
Our service includes all of the work you need – from the valuation and negotiation work to ensure you get a fair premium, to the legal work to make your claim and get your lease updated at the Land Registry. The legal work is completed by Leasehold Legal Services, which is a SRA-Regulated law firm owned by Homehold.
Stage 1: Preparation and Valuation
Your lease extension will be started by a detailed review of the legal documents associated with your lease and flat. The solicitors at Leasehold Legal Services will review these to make sure that all the documents are present, and to help identify and navigate any issues that might crop up during the process.
The team LLS will then brief the valuation team at Homehold and they will prepare a valuation which will do two things. The first is it will advise you how much we think you should pay for your lease extension and why. The second is it will equip us with the evidence and arguments that we need to negotiate this fair price with your freeholder’s valuer.
We will be looking for similar flats that have sold to yours in the borough. For example, we’ve recently done a lease extension on a modern Fairview flat in Kidbrooke, and another in a Hyde Housing development near Greenwich Park – despite both being purpose-built flats, they had a completely different valuation profile.
We have valued a wide-range of property in the borough – from period conversion flats in Woolwich and Plumstead to flats above commercial property on Shooters Hill Road.
Stage 2: Notice Serving and Negotiation
Once you are happy with the premium we have proposed for your lease extension, the negotiation process is started by a statutory notice being served on your freeholder. This states to your freeholder that you claim your right to a lease extension, and makes an offer of how much you are prepared to pay for it.
Your freeholder will respond (they have two months, plus some time for postage) and they will accept your right to a new lease but invariably as for more money.
It is then the valuation team at Homehold’s job to negotiate the price for your lease extension, using the evidence collected during the valuation stage. However long this negotiation takes, the process is included in our fixed fee – which means you never have to decide between either accepting a price that you think is too high, or continuing to invest money into negotiations without knowing if you’ll be better off in the long run.
Stage 3: Conveyancing and Completion
Once your lease extension premium has been agreed, the final part of the process is to get your lease extension completed and registered at the Land Registry.
A document will be prepared by your freeholder’s solicitor. Usually this is a short document called a “Deed of Surrender and Regrant” (or sometimes referred to as a “Deed of Variation”) which extends your existing lease, and removes the ground rent.
The team at LLS will handle completion, and then register the lease at the Land Registry – so whether you keep the flat into the long term, or put it on the market, you know the length of the lease and ground rent won’t be an issue.
What do Homehold charge?
We work on a completely fixed-fee basis, which covers all the work required for your lease extension, including the legal work which is completed by Leasehold Legal Services.
Our fee is £2,580+VAT and this is split into three equal instalments of £860+VAT.
The fee also includes “disbursements”, which are things other firms also add on top – such as Land Registry fees and postage.
Why should I use Homehold for my Greenwich lease extension?
Homehold only do lease extensions, and we only work for leaseholders. The lease extension process is complicated – in the sense that there are a lot of working parts, deadlines to meet and trials and tribulations that can arise. We are well versed in dealing with all of this.
Because we only work for leaseholders, never freeholders, we really can work with your best interests at heart.
Hear it from another flat owner in Greenwich
Having dealt with property solicitors and intermediaries before, the customer experience that Homehold provide are truly fabulous and a world apart - I highly recommend them for any lease extension or enfranchisement. In addition to the fantastic service, they also provide you a fixed (and very reasonable) price ahead of taking on your case, so further enhancing the customer experience.
Paul Benjamin
