How many leaseholders are there?
Ultimately we'd expect the data to come from:
- Land Registry
- Census
- Companies House (tracking RMCs)
MHCLG has made estimates over the years. There are about 5 million leaseholders in England and Wales.
Complications
- One leaseholder may hold multiple leases (e.g., own several flats)
- Some leaseholders are companies
- Some leases may cover two or many more flats
- Some flats are not subject to leases (e.g., they are owned by the freeholder of the building)
- Some leasehold flats are unoccupied
- Some leasehold flats comprise multiple households in an HMO
- Leases may be held jointly between multiple persons (who themselves may own multiple leases)
- Shared Ownership is generally a type of leasehold
- A dwelling may be subject to multiple leases - the head lessee is itself a leaseholder
- There are commonhold flats, and share-of-freehold flats. The latter is leasehold, the former not.
- Commercial premises also have leaseholders, and may be part of a mixed-use building
- The common parts of some developments are themselves leasehold
Controversy
The civil service's estimates of the size of the residential leasehold sector was subject to long-running dispute with Leasehold Knowledge Partnership