What Are Ground Rents?

Most new-build flats and apartments are sold leasehold, typically with a long lease granted by the freeholder, the owner of the land the building is built on.

The freeholder is entitled to charge a fee, usually annually, known as ground rents for the use of that owned land, typically to the multiple owners of the leasehold properties that are in the apartment block or converted building.

Payment of the fee is almost always a condition of the lease, which also spells out how and when it is to be paid, what happens if it isn’t and when any escalation clauses mean it can be increased.