Phil Spencer: Why are thousands of leasehold houses still being sold?

TV presenter Phil Spencer has savaged new homes builders for continuing to sell leasehold houses despite the recent miss-selling scandal that rocked the construction industry. His property advice site MoveIQ says its research shows 2,600 leasehold houses have been sold since the government announced it would introduce a ban a year ago. The revelation is shocking because many of these houses are being sold via the tax-payer funded Help to Buy scheme. MoveIQ says Land Registry figures show 26,024 new-build properties have been sold with leaseholds since last December’s government announcement, 2,644 of which were houses. And data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government shows that during the first six months of 2018, nearly 6,000 leasehold homes were bought with assistance from the Help to Buy scheme, of which 1,340 were houses. Financial problems Buyers can face crippling financial problems after they move in. This includes huge ground rent increases and finding they are unable to sell their homes while some are charged large sums to make even minor changes to their homes. Earlier this year the NAEA conducted research that found a third of those who had bought leasehold houses had subsequently struggled to sell them.…