Lease extensions and ground rent
The Act introduces a new right to a lease extension for leaseholders of both houses and flats, for a term of 990 years at a peppercorn ground rent on payment of the statutory price. The Act also gives shared ownership leaseholders the right to a lease extension for 990 years.
	The Act amends statutory redevelopment break rights to give freeholders consistent rights for houses and flats. Break rights will be available during the last 12 months of the original lease or the last five years of each period of 90 years of a 990-year lease extension.
	The Act repeals a limited number of statutory redevelopment ‘defences’ (or blockers) to lease extension (as well as some freehold acquisition claims) in houses and flats, where the rights have become redundant, or in certain cases for houses, compensation rules are incompatible with the new 990-year lease extension rights.
	The Act introduces a new right for leaseholders who already have very long leases (with over 150 years remaining) to buy out their ground rent without also needing to extend the term of their lease or buy the freehold. Leaseholders already have the right to buy out their ground rent as part of the lease extension process, and leaseholders with under 150 years on their lease will continue to be able to do this. The Act sets the method for calculating the price of a statutory lease extension or freehold acquisition, known as the valuation process. The Act removes the requirement for marriage value to be paid, caps the treatment of ground rents in the valuation calculation at 0.1% of the freehold value and allows Government to prescribe the rates used to calculate the price of enfranchisement. Rates will be set by the Secretary of State in secondary legislation.