Lease on a townhouse vs freehold

D

Darth Vader

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As i understand it, all apartments and townhouses are sold by way of Lease. The leases are usually for a term of approx. 100 years. What happens when the 100 years are up? Does the title convert to freehold??
 
It is standard for apartments to be leashold rather than freehold. This is because where your apartment is part of a larger building, it is not possible to own the freehold - the common areas such as hallways, stairwells, etc, as well as the external fabric of the building have to be held in common by the apartment owners. I'm not entirely sure, but I presume the freehold of the site would be owned by the managment company, of which all apartment owners are members.

100 years would be unusually short for the lease - in my admittedly narrow experience, 999 years would be typical. Maybe someone with legal experience could comment. Anyway, after 999 years, the OP and his heirs will be long past caring what happens!
 
OK - I was thinking more of individual townhouses but maybe the original poster has in mind something like a townhouse duplex (e.g. a house with a separate unit in the basement etc.)?
 
A lease for an apartment is normally well in excess of 100 years - anything from 500 to 999 is standard. In terms of a building standing that long, it is as good a title as a freehold.

Its not possible any longer to create a leasehold title for a house. But there would be covenants contained in any Deed to a townhouse owner.

mf
 
In recent years lease terms for apartments have been changed to 99 and 125 years with a minimal ground rent of 1 to 10 euro which is not usually collected . At the moment. Although i have seen people increasingly looking at this option i.e. Noel O Gara. (!)
 
"In recent years lease terms for apartments have been changed to 99 and 125 years "

Are you sure ?- the norm is not less than 500 years. 99 is very short - anything less than 75 years is not regarded as good marketable title acceptable to a lender.

mf
 
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