See when your rent passes the lender limit and what extending or varying the lease would cost.
See when your ground rent passes the £250 / £1,000 lender threshold, what you will pay, and how a deed of variation compares with extending.
| Calendar year | Annual rent | Compared with threshold |
|---|
Many flats sold between about 2005 and 2020 carry ground rent that doubles every 10, 15 or 25 years, or rises with RPI. The sums grow faster than most buyers expect. This calculator rebuilds your rent for every year of the lease from the starting rent, the lease start year and the review period, then checks it against the figure that matters most to lenders.
New long residential leases granted since 30 June 2022 must have a peppercorn ground rent under the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, so this tool is aimed at older leases. The £250 ground rent cap in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 is not yet in force, and the government has indicated it expects the cap to apply from late 2028.
The tables below are pre-calculated so you can see the pattern without typing anything in.
| Starting rent | Review period | Years after lease start rent first exceeds £250 | Years after start it first exceeds £1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| £100 | Every 10 years | 20 years | 40 years |
| £100 | Every 15 years | 30 years | 60 years |
| £100 | Every 25 years | 50 years | 100 years |
| £150 | Every 10 years | 10 years | 30 years |
| £150 | Every 15 years | 15 years | 45 years |
| £150 | Every 25 years | 25 years | 75 years |
| £250 | Every 10 years | 10 years | 30 years |
| £250 | Every 15 years | 15 years | 45 years |
| £250 | Every 25 years | 25 years | 75 years |
| Clause | Year 0 | Year 25 | Year 50 | Year 100 | Total over 125 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £250, doubling every 25 years | £250 | £500 | £1,000 | £4,000 | £193,750 |
| £250, doubling every 10 years | £250 | £1,000 | £8,000 | £256,000 | £15,357,500 |
| £295, doubling every 25 years | £295 | £590 | £1,180 | £4,720 | £228,625 |
| Scenario | Flat value | Years left in 2026 | Value of the rent stream (5%) | Estimated extension premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £250 doubling every 25 yrs, 125-yr lease from 2010 | £350,000 | 109 years | £11,523 | £13,217 |
| £250 doubling every 10 yrs, 125-yr lease from 2015 | £300,000 | 114 years | £173,567 | £174,705 |
| £150 doubling every 15 yrs, 99-yr lease from 2006 | £325,000 | 79 years | £19,003 | £26,753 |
The 10-year doubling total is deliberately extreme to show how fast rent compounds; real leases of that kind are rare but do exist. Premiums are estimates before professional fees.
Sources
Related guides
Some leases double the ground rent every 10 to 25 years. Once the rent is above £250 a year (£1,000 in Greater London) the lease can fall within the Housing Act 1988 as an assured tenancy, which lenders treat as a serious risk, so selling or remortgaging can become hard.
Often it makes it harder, not impossible. Lenders vary, and some will lend only if the clause is varied or the rent capped. A solicitor can tell you how a given lender is likely to view your lease.
It is an agreement with the freeholder to change the lease, for example to cap or fix the ground rent. The freeholder usually charges a premium and your legal costs, and it is voluntary, so there is no fixed price.
Yes, for a statutory lease extension of a flat the new lease has a peppercorn ground rent, which means zero. You also receive 90 years on top of the unexpired term. You pay a premium set by the statutory method plus professional fees.
Not yet. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 provides for a £250 cap, but it is not in force. Leases granted since 30 June 2022 already have peppercorn ground rent under the 2022 Act.
This calculator was built and is maintained by Rahul Tandon, an independent web developer and researcher. It applies published statutory rules and the 5% Sportelli deferment rate, and every assumption is shown on this page. The formulas and limits are on the methodology page; see our editorial policy. LeaseVault is not a law firm, a surveying practice or a mortgage broker, and the result is an estimate for initial budgeting, not legal, financial or valuation advice.
We’ll notify you when 2024 Act provisions come into force and when new premium rates are confirmed.