Official Statistics

Leasehold dwellings, 2023 to 2024

Published 22 May 2025

Applies to England

1. In this release:

• In 2023-24, there were an estimated 4.83 million leasehold dwellings in England. This equates to 19% of the English housing stock. Of these, 2.59 million dwellings (54%) were in the owner occupied sector and 1.96 million (41%) were privately owned and let in the private rented sector. The remaining 277,000 (6%) were dwellings owned by social landlords and let in the social rented sector
• Just under three-quarters (72%) of the leasehold dwellings in England (3.5 million) were flats and 28% (1.3 million) were houses
• At regional level, London had the highest proportion of leasehold dwellings, 38%, followed by the North West, 26%. These two regions had a significantly higher proportion of leasehold properties than all other regions in England (8% - 17%)
• The estimated 4.83 million leasehold dwellings in 2023-24 does not represent a statistically significant change from the 4.98 million 2021-22
• The proportion of houses that are leasehold decreased from 8% in 2021-22 to 7% in 2023-24

Release date: 22 May 2025

Date of next release: May 2026

Responsible Statistician: Stephen Pottinger

Media enquiries: 0303 444 1209 NewsDesk@communities.gov.uk

2. Introduction

This release presents an estimate of the number of leasehold and freehold dwellings in England in 2023-24, split by tenure, dwelling type and region, and as a proportion of the overall housing stock.

3. Results

In 2023-24, there were an estimated 4.83 million leasehold dwellings in England. This equates to 19% of the English housing stock. There were a further 20.53 million freehold dwellings.

As this estimate is based on a sample of dwellings, a confidence interval around the estimate has been calculated. Using a 95% confidence interval, the 2023-24 estimate of 4.83 million sits within a lower bound of 4.62 million and an upper bound of 5.04 million leasehold dwellings.

Table 1: Leasehold as a proportion of stock and number of dwellings, by tenure and dwelling type, 2023-24

	Houses: number of leasehold dwellings (thousands)	Houses: number of freehold dwellings (thousands)	Flats: number of leasehold dwellings (thousands)	Flats: number of freehold dwellings (thousands)	Total: number of leasehold dwellings (thousands)	Total: number of freehold dwellings (thousands)
Owner occupied	982	13,527	1,611	163	2,593	13,690
Private rented sector	288	2,401	1,673	576	1,961	2,978
All private sector	1,270	15,929	3,284	739	4,555	16,668
Local authority	12	1,282	37	1,061	49	2,342
Housing association	65	756	163	767	228	1,523
All social sector	76	2,038	200	1827	277	3,865
All tenures	1,347	17,967	3,485	2,566	4,831	20,533

^{Sources: English Housing Survey; HM Land Registry; MHCLG Dwelling Stock Estimate 2023; VOA Council Tax Stock of Properties 2023
Note: Number of dwellings listed in thousands; total sample size - 12,608 cases
Based on Annex table 3}

Of these leasehold dwellings, 2.59 million (54%) were in the owner occupied sector and 1.96 million (41%) were privately owned and let in the private rented sector. The remaining 277,000 (6%) were dwellings owned by social landlords and let in the social rented sector, Table 1, Annex Table 3 and 5.

Looking at the proportion of dwellings in each tenure that were leasehold, 16% of owner occupied homes, 40% of homes in the private rented sector and 7% of homes in the social rented sector were owned on a leasehold basis, Table 2.

The majority of leasehold dwellings (72%) were flats, with 3.48 million leasehold flats across all tenures, 3.28 million in the private sector (68%) and 200,000 in the social rented sector (4%). There were 1.35 million leasehold houses in 2023-24, which made up the remaining 28% of leasehold dwellings, Annex Table(s) 3 and 5.

Although the majority of leasehold dwellings were flats, not all flats were leasehold. Approximately 58% of all flats in England were leasehold. This is largely a result of the large proportion of flats in the social sector, most of which were not leasehold.

Of the 2.03 million flats in the social sector, just 200,000 were leasehold (10%). In the private sector 3.28 million of the total number of 4.02 million flats were leasehold (82%).

Leasehold houses were less prevalent than leasehold flats. This was true across all tenures. Overall, there were 1.35 million houses owned on a leasehold basis (7% of the total).  Houses in the private sector (7%), were more likely to be leasehold than those in the social sector (4%). Semi-detached and terraced houses were more likely to be leasehold (8%) than detached houses (5%), Annex Table 3. Local authority owned flats were those least likely to be leasehold (5%), with owner occupied flats those most likely to be leasehold (91%), Table 2.

Table 2. Proportion of leasehold dwellings in each tenure split by houses and flats, 2023-24

	Houses: % dwellings leasehold	Houses: % dwellings freehold	Flats: % dwellings leasehold	Flats: % dwellings freehold	Total: % dwellings leasehold	Total: % dwellings freehold
Owner occupied	6.8	93.2	90.8	9.2	15.9	84.1
Private rented sector	10.7	89.3	74.4	25.6	39.7	60.3
All private sector	7.4	92.6	81.6	18.4	21.5	78.5
Local authority	1.5	98.5	4.6	95.4	3.1	96.9
Housing association	4.8	95.2	13.3	86.7	8.9	91.1
All social sector	3.6	96.4	9.9	90.1	6.7	93.3
All tenures	7.0	93.0	57.6	42.4	19.0	81.0

^{Sources: English Housing Survey; HM Land Registry; MHCLG Dwelling Stock Estimate 2023; VOA Council Tax Stock of Properties 2023
Note: Number of dwellings listed in thousands; total sample size - 12,608 cases
Based on Annex table 3}

4. Regional results

In 2023-24, 19% of the housing stock in England was owned on a leasehold basis, though this varied by region. London had the highest proportion of leasehold dwellings of the nine English regions with 38% (1.4 million dwellings) leasehold stock, followed by the North West with 26% (889,000 dwellings), Annex Table(s) 1 and 2. The remaining seven regions had a much lower proportion of leasehold dwellings (8% - 17%), Figure 1.

Figure 1: Proportion of housing stock owned on a leasehold basis, by region, 2023-24

^{Sources: English Housing Survey; HM Land Registry; MHCLG Dwelling Stock Estimate 2023; VOA Council Tax Stock of Properties 2023. Underlying data are presented in Annex Table 1&2.}

London had the highest proportion of leasehold dwellings largely due to the high number of flats in the capital. There were 2.1 million flats in London, more than half of its total dwelling stock, 3.8 million. The second highest was in the South East which had 950,000 flats, less than a quarter of the total dwellings, 4.1 million. However, there was also variation in the prevalence of leasehold properties across regions within different dwelling types.

The highest concentration of leasehold houses was in the North West, where 22% (622,000 dwellings) were owned on a leasehold basis, a significantly greater proportion than in any other region. The neighbouring regions, Yorkshire and the Humber (10%) and the North East (8%) had a higher proportion of leasehold houses than London (4%) and the South East (2%).

This difference was particularly noticeable when looking at proportion of detached leasehold houses in both London and the North West. While there were zero detached leasehold houses in London, there were 111,000 in the North West (23%).

London (where 63% of all flats were leasehold), the East of England (63%), the South West (62%) and the South East (61%) had a higher concentration of leasehold flats than regions in the north, including the North West (45%), Yorkshire and the Humber (47%) and the North East (49%), Annex Table 1.

The proportion of all leasehold dwellings that were houses or flats also differed across the regions. In the North West 70% of all leasehold dwellings were houses and the remaining 30% were flats whereas, in London, just 5% were houses and 95% were flats, Annex Table 4.

There was a higher proportion of leasehold properties in the private sector than the social sector across all regions. However, there were some regional differences in the proportion of dwellings in the social sector that were leasehold, particularly across neighbouring regions. Social rented properties in London were more likely to be leasehold (9%) than social rented properties in the South East (6%), this was also true of the North West (10%) compared to the North East (3%), Annex Table 2.

There was also a higher proportion of leasehold properties in the private rented sector than in the owner occupied sector in all regions apart from the West Midlands, where proportions were similar (15% and 11% respectively). The East Midlands had the lowest proportion of owner occupied leasehold properties (6%) and London had the most (35%). In the private rented sector, London (61%) and the North West (53%) had the highest proportion of leasehold dwellings. The other regions ranged between 15% and 40%.

5. Changes over time

In 2017, the government announced the intention to ban new leasehold houses and have subsequently introduced policy levers to support this, such as preventing government funding programmes (such as Help to Buy) from supporting leasehold houses and introducing the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill to Parliament in 2024, which bans the sale of new leasehold houses with some exceptions. The Ground Rent Act 2022 also removed a key incentive for developing leasehold houses by preventing a financial ground rent in most circumstances. As a result, we might expect to see a lower level of leasehold houses, as newer houses will not be leasehold.

The percentage of houses that are leasehold decreased from 8% in 2021-22 to 7% in 2023-24. This was most apparent in the North West, where the proportion of houses that were leasehold reduced from 28% in 2021-22 to 22% in 2023-24. In the owner occupied sector, the proportion of houses that were leasehold reduced from 8% in 2021-22 to 7% in 2023-24. More broadly in the owner occupied tenure, the proportion of leasehold dwellings reduced from 18% in 2021-22 to 16% in 2023-24, Annex Table(s) 1 and 3 and Annex tables (2021-22).  

The overall proportion of leasehold properties that were houses in 2023-24 was 28%. This represented a decrease from the proportion in 2021-22, 30% with a corresponding rise in the proportion of leasehold properties which are flats, Annex Table(s) 4 and 5.

The rise in the number of leasehold properties has plateaued overall in recent years following the recent legislation. There was a 17% increase in the number of leasehold properties between 2016-17 (4.26) and 2021-22 (4.98m). The apparent decrease to 4.83m in 2023-24 is statistically insignificant, Figure 2.

Figure 2: Estimated number of leasehold dwellings, 2015-16 to 2023-24

^{Sources: English Housing Survey; HM Land Registry; MHCLG Dwelling Stock Estimate 2023; VOA Council Tax Stock of Properties 2023. Underlying data are presented in Annex Tables 1, 2 and 3.}

Similarly, the proportion of dwellings that were leasehold increased from 18% in 2016-17 to 20% in 2021-22, but there has been no significant change between 2021-22 and 2023-24 (19%), Annex Tables 1, 2 and 3 and Annex Tables 2016-17.

6. Further information

Annex Tables

Accompanying tables are available to download alongside this release. Annex tables 2023-24

Technical Notes

Please see the accompanying technical notes document for further details. Technical notes, 2023-24

7. Enquiries

Media enquiries:

telephone: 0303 444 1209

Email: newsdesk@communities.gov.uk

Public enquiries and Responsible Statisticians:

Stephen Pottinger

Email: ehs@communities.gov.uk

Information on Official Statistics is available via the UK Statistics Authority website: https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/

Information about statistics at MHCLG is available via the Department’s website: Statistics at MHCLG - Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government - GOV.UK