Freehold Checker: Is a Property Freehold or Leasehold?

What a freehold checker does

A freehold checker tells you whether a property is held as freehold or leasehold. Tenure is recorded on the property's official title register at HM Land Registry, and it is one of the first things you should confirm before making an offer, because it changes the true cost of ownership.

Estate agent listings are not always reliable on tenure, and an assumption that a flat is share of freehold or that a house has no lease can be wrong. Checking the register removes the guesswork.

How to check if a property is freehold

• Look up the property's title register, which records the tenure as freehold or leasehold.
• For a freehold, the register confirms outright ownership of the property and land.
• For a leasehold, the register references a lease; you then need the lease term and any ground rent.
• Watch for share of freehold flats, where the lease still exists but the freehold is owned collectively.
• Confirm any management company, estate rentcharge or service charge that applies.

Why tenure changes what you pay

Leasehold ownership comes with costs and risks freehold does not: ground rent, service charges, a lease that shortens over time, and the cost of a lease extension once it drops below about 80 years. A short lease can make a flat hard to mortgage and expensive to fix.

A freehold house avoids most of these, though some newer estates carry rentcharges or estate management fees. Knowing the tenure, and the numbers behind it, before you offer is the difference between a fair price and an expensive surprise.

Check the recorded tenure with HomeBuyerCheck

HomeBuyerCheck works as a quick freehold checker for addresses in England and Wales. The free report shows the tenure recorded in HM Land Registry sales records (the Price Paid data) for the property's most recent sale, so you can see whether it last sold as freehold or leasehold before you instruct anyone. It does not read or supply the official title register.

The £4.99 Premium report adds a title and tenure summary built from public HM Land Registry data: the recorded tenure (estimated from other sales in the same postcode when the property has no recorded sale of its own), the last price paid, and the registered owner where HM Land Registry's corporate ownership data lists a UK or overseas company. It also runs Companies House checks on a company owner and gives an AI buyer's verdict, and Premium+ at £6.99 adds the AI Solicitor, Surveyor and Mortgage briefs. The official title register, with the owner's name, covenants, easements and charges, is a separate £7 download from GOV.UK.