Trying to sell my home in London! Help!

I'm starting to panic!  Looking for help (please).  Was supposed to be in Malaga in August last year  I've "sold" my flat in London  five times, that is I've had five offers from my estate agent but they've all fallen through becuase the buyer couldnt get a mortgage.  My flat has a 52 year lease on it so the banks won't lend on it.  Just before Christmas I contacted a few of these homebuyer companies, so far i've only heard back from decisionhomebuyers but they haven't done thier survey yet.  They say the offfer will be below market value but not sure by how much.  the problem is my mortgage is quite high and not sure if the offer will be high enough.  i think my only option will be to rent the property but am reluctant to do that becuase it will be a headache... reason i want to go to spain is to get away from all that. 

can anyone give me any advice about selling a flat with a short lease?  is renting a property out realy a nightmare, espcially if i'm not going to be in the country?  any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks, Sammy

Hi

Have you looked at the cost of extending the lease to 99 years?  John had to do this, as the lease on his flat was about 60 years.  The good news is that he negotiated it so that he didn´t have to actually pay the money for the extension until completion!  This enabled John to sell his property fairly quickly, even though he was living in Spain so not on the scene to chase things up!

Sue

Hi Sammy

Sue is right about extending the lease if possible. Can't believe your agent didn't advise you when they valued it for you especially as a short lease would affect the valuation as well as make it virtually unmortgageable.  Still, they didn't so what to do next. You need to contact the freeholders firstly to find out how much an extended lease would cost. Also if the freeholder will agree to an extension individually and not insist that it can only be done as a block. Sometimes this happens when you, as owners, run your own management company for the block. When you have done this, as Sue says, you can incorporate the cost of the extended lease in with the price and advertise it as however many years you extend for to be available on completion. Otherwise you will find that unless you get a cash buyer (and with such a short lease will want to knock you right down on the price) you will be stuck with it I'm afraid. The legal work can usually be done quite quickly to enable you to complete within the normal time scale.

Hope this helps, let us know how you get on.

Also a word of advice, stay away from the homebuyer companies.

Good Luck

thanks very much sue and candyfloss,  i looked into this before but was told i hadn;t lived there long enough so gave up on the idea, not sure whether that's right or not? i've only lived here for about 2 years

Hi mymovetospain

Renting your property out can be a nightmare but it can also be beneficial financially.

I would suggest that you approach your local council and see if they are looking for properties like yours to rent out (as you're in London I would assume they will be).

The council will usually take your property on for 3 to 5 years and the rent is guaranteed for this time - you just need to make sure that if there are any maintenance issues they are completed - you can usually get the council to complete these jobs for you with an admin charge, but it's well worth it for peace of mind.

The only issue with renting to the council is the initial outlay of sorting all the health and safety jobs that will need doing, such as fitting a fire door on the kitchen, having a wired up smoke alarm etc. What they do is come to your house and tell you what needs to be done and you just get it done.

You will also find that there are other agencies that rent properties to the council under a similar scheme.

I know they are always looking for properties in West London and I think the scheme is great, especially if you're not planning to move back to the property - and the rent they pay is very good too. I highly recommend it. I'm sure they must be looking for properties in all parts of London.

Hi Sammy

We're not experts, but I don't think the length of time you have lived there should stop you extending the lease to make it easier to sell the property.  As you have already had a reasonable amount of interest, I would definitely approach the landlord about the lease.  John had to extend the lease on his flat, as I said before.  He had one offer, a bit less than he would have liked, but it was a cash offer and so he snapped it up. 

Good luck, and do let us know what happens!

Sue