Modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases

This consultation sets out a series of options for how the government could intervene to cap the ground rent leaseholders have to pay. The government has already legislated to ensure that new residential leases are restricted to a peppercorn ground rent. This consultation sets out a series of options to extend this protection to existing leaseholders.

The consultation outlines 5 options including;

• capping ground rents at a peppercorn
• setting maximum financial value for ground rent
• capping ground rents at a percentage of the property value,
• limiting ground rent to the original value when the lease was agreed
• freezing ground rent at current levels.

This work builds on the governments existing programme to deliver a better deal for leaseholders including the Ground Rent Act 2022 which limits ground rent on new leases to one peppercorn per year - effectively setting the rate to zero.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill - which will be introduced to Parliament soon - will go further. It delivers on the government’s manifesto commitment to make the leasehold system more transparent, protecting the millions of people who own a leasehold property.

Today’s public consultation will be open for 610 weeks and the government will carefully consider all responses before responding. Subject to the outcome of the consultation we aim to introduce reforms through the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill.

An impact assessment for this consultation was published on 6 December 2023.