Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate she has made of the number of leaseholders currently paying ground rents above £250 per year.

The government is committed to addressing unregulated and unaffordable ground rents and we will do this in legislation. We will set out further details on our detailed plans for existing ground rents in due course.

Data on ground rents is collected as part of the English Housing Survey and published in the leasehold experience fact sheet. The latest publication found that 77% of leaseholders currently pay a ground rent with an average ground rent of £304. This publication includes information on ground rents by region.

High ground rents which escalate rapidly create affordability issues both directly through the increased cost leaseholders face by also by making it harder for leaseholders to mortgage or sell their properties. In a 2023 survey undertaken by Propertymark, a leading membership body for property agents, 78 per cent of their members reported that a leasehold property with an escalating ground rent will struggle to sell, even if priced correctly.