After Audra Woods divorced her husband of 17 years, she was desperate to find a home big enough for herself and her two teenagers that she could comfortably afford alone.
In 2020, she bought a maisonette leasehold in south London for £475,000. It seemed perfect – there were three good-sized bedrooms, much cheaper than large freehold properties in the area. The £500 annual ground rent seemed reasonable to pay and there was no service charge.
But after six months, a service charge of £ 1000 a year was introduced by the freeholder, and 18 months later, when a third-party management company was introduced, it tripled. “Whatever happens now I’m f**ked and so are my children,” the 56-year-old tells The i Paper. “I’m in debt to a rogue management company.”
Woods is one of many Britons trapped in unaffordable leasehold properties. A leasehold arrangement means the buyer owns the property itself for a fixed lease period but not the land it stands on. Service charges in England and Wales have risen sharply, at a rate several times higher than inflation – estate agent Hamptons estimated in 2025 that the average annual charge was £2,300. From 2024, there was an 11 per cent increase in the charges across the country, the biggest in eight years.
