Official Statistics

Leasehold dwellings, 2022 to 2023

Published 9 May 2024

Applies to England

1. In this release:

• In 2022-23, there were an estimated 4.77 million leasehold dwellings in England. This equates to 19% of the English housing stock. Of these, 2.65 million dwellings (56%) were in the owner occupied sector and 1.82 million (38%) were privately owned and let in the private rented sector. The remaining 299,000 (6%) were dwellings owned by social landlords and let in the social rented sector.

• 72% of the leasehold dwellings in England (3.4 million) were flats; the other 28% (1.3 million) were houses.

• At regional level, London had the highest proportion of leasehold dwellings, 36%, followed by the North West, 27%. These two regions were significantly higher than all other regions in England which had between 8% and 16%.

• The apparent decrease from 4.98 million in 2021-22 to 4.77 million in 2022-23 is not statistically significant. The apparent decrease in the proportion of leasehold dwellings from 20% to 19% is similarly insignificant.

• In the last 5 years the number of leasehold dwellings has increased from 4.27 million in 2017-18 to 4.77 million in 2022-23.

Release date: 9 May 2024

Date of next release: May 2025

Responsible Statistician: Stephen Pottinger

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

2. Introduction

This release presents an estimate of the number of leasehold dwellings in England in 2022-23, split by tenure, dwelling type and region, and as a proportion of the overall housing stock.

3. Results

In 2022-23, there were an estimated 4.77 million leasehold dwellings in England. This equates to 19% of the English housing stock.

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 2022-23 estimate of 4.77 million sits within a lower bound of 4.54 million and an upper bound of 4.99 million leasehold dwellings.

While lower thresholds could be chosen to make the test less sensitive, for this publication, we test significance to a 95% confidence level. This means, when we say something is statistically significant, we can be 95% sure the change we are seeing is reflected in the population, and not due to sample variation or a change in survey mode, for example.

Of these 4.77 million leasehold dwellings, 2.65 million dwellings (56%) were in the owner occupied sector and 1.82 million (38%) were privately owned and let in the private rented sector. The remaining 299,000 (6%) were dwellings owned by social landlords and let in the social rented sector, Annex Table 3 and 4

Looking at the proportion of each tenure that is leasehold, 16% of owner occupied homes, 37% of homes in the private rented sector and 7% of homes in the social rented sector are owned on a leasehold basis, Table 1.

The majority of leasehold dwellings (72%) were flats with 3.44 million leasehold flats across all tenures (3.21 million in the private sector and 226,000 in the social rented sector). There were 1.33 million leasehold houses in 2022-23, which made up the remaining 28% of leasehold dwellings.

Contrary to the assumption that all flats are leasehold, approximately 58% of all the flats in England were leasehold. This is largely down to the fact that only a small proportion of flats in the social sector are owned on a leasehold basis. In the private sector, 81% of flats were owned on a leasehold basis (91% of owner occupied flats and 73% of privately rented flats) and just 11% of flats in the social rented sector were found to be leasehold.

Leasehold houses were less prevalent than leasehold flats. This was true across all tenures. Overall, 7% of houses were found to be owned on a leasehold basis. This was more often found in the private sector (7%), than the social sector (3%).

Table 1: Leasehold as a proportion of stock and number of dwellings, by tenure and dwelling type, 2022-23

	Houses: % dwellings leasehold	Houses: number of leasehold dwellings (thousands)	Flats: % dwellings leasehold	Flats: number of leasehold dwellings (thousands)	Total: % dwellings leasehold	Total: number of leasehold dwellings (thousands)
Owner occupied	7.2	1,041	91.4	1,611	16.4	2,652
Private rented sector	8.0	217	73.4	1,599	37.2	1,815
All private sector	7.4	1,258	81.4	3,209	21.3	4,467
Local authority	0.8	6	6.5	52	3.7	58
Housing association	5.0	67	14.5	174	9.5	241
All social sector	3.5	73	11.3	226	7.3	299
All tenures	6.9	1,331	57.8	3,435	19.0	4,766

^{Sources: English Housing Survey; HM Land Registry; DLUHC Dwelling Stock Estimate 2022; VOA Council Tax Stock of Properties 2022.
Notes: Percentages are rounded to one decimal place; based on 10,439 cases.
Based on Annex Tables AT 1 and AT 3.}

4. Regional results

Although 19% of the housing stock in England was owned on a leasehold basis, this varied by region. London had the highest proportion of leasehold dwellings of the 9 regions in England with 36% (1.3 million dwellings) leasehold stock, followed by the North West with 27% (910,000 dwellings). The remaining regions had a much lower proportion of leasehold dwellings, with the East Midlands having the lowest (8%), just 180,000 dwellings, Figure 1 and Table 2 (below).

Figure 1: Proportion of housing stock owned on a leasehold basis, by region, 2022-23

Region	Percentage
London	36.1
North West	26.7
South West	16.3
South East	16.0
Yorkshire and the Humber	15.7
East of England	14.9
North East	11.7
West Midlands	11.5
East Midlands	8.3

^{Sources: English Housing Survey; HM Land Registry; DLUHC Dwelling Stock Estimates 2022; VOA Council Tax Stock of Properties 2022.
Underlying data are presented in Annex Table 4.}

Looking at houses and flats separately, the proportion of leasehold houses also varied by region. Most notably, 23% of houses in the North West were owned on a leasehold basis, a significantly greater proportion than in any other region. The second highest was 11% in Yorkshire and the Humber, (which borders the North West region) whereas London, the South east and East Midlands have 2%.

However, the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber had a smaller proportion of leasehold flats (both 43%) than London (62%), the South East (63%), the South West (66%) and East of England (69%),Table 2.

Table 2: Leasehold as a proportion of stock and number of dwellings, by region and dwelling type, 2022-23

	Houses: % dwellings leasehold	Houses: number of leasehold dwellings (thousands)	Flats: % dwellings leasehold	Flats: number of leasehold dwellings (thousands)	Total: % dwellings leasehold	Total: number of leasehold dwellings (thousands)
North East	5.3	56	45.2	93	11.7	149
North West	23.2	653	43.4	257	26.7	910
Yorkshire and the Humber	10.6	225	43.2	168	15.7	392
East Midlands	2.3	45	50.5	136	8.3	181
West Midlands	4.9	105	44.1	191	11.5	296
East of England	2.9	67	68.8	348	14.9	415
London	2.2	36	62.4	1,308	36.1	1,344
South East	2.1	67	63.1	584	16.0	651
South West	3.7	78	66.4	351	16.3	428
Total	6.9	1,331	57.8	3,435	19.0	4,766

^{Sources: English Housing Survey; HM Land Registry; DLUHC Dwelling Stock Estimate 2022; VOA Council Tax Stock of Properties 2022.
Notes: Percentages are rounded to one decimal place; based on 10,439 cases.
Based on Annex Tables AT 5 and AT 7.}

5. Changes over time

In 2017, the government announced the intention to ban new leasehold houses and, since then, have used some policy levers to support this aim, 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. 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.

This is apparent in the North West, which has the highest concentration of leasehold houses. Here, we can see the percentage has dropped to 23% from 28% in 2021-22, Table 2 and Annex tables (2021-22).  

In addition, across housing type, semi-detached and terraced leasehold houses have seen a decrease from 9% in 2021-22 to 7% in 2022-23, Annex Table 5.

The proportion of leasehold properties that are flats, (72% in 2022-23), has increased significantly from 70% in 2021-22 and 68% (3 years ago) in 2019-20, Annex Table 4.

Figure 2: Estimated number of leasehold dwellings, 2015-16 to 2022-23

^{Sources: English Housing Survey; HM Land Registry; DLUHC Dwelling Stock Estimate 2022; VOA Council Tax Stock of Properties 2022.
Underlying data are presented in Annex Table 3.}

As a proportion of total stock, 19% of dwellings in England were owned on a leasehold basis in 2022-23. The apparent decrease from 20% in 2021-22 is statistically insignificant, as is the apparent drop in total number of leasehold dwellings from 4.98 million to 4.77 million.

Over the longer the term we have still seen a significant increase in the number of leasehold dwellings. In 2017-18, there were 4.27 million leasehold dwellings, a 12% increase over the last 5 years, Figure 2.

6. Accompanying tables and open data

Tables

Accompanying tables are available to download alongside this release.

7. Technical notes

Please see the accompanying technical notes document for further details.

8. Enquiries

Media enquiries: telephone: 0303 444 1209 / Email: newsdesk@levellingup.gov.uk

Public enquiries and Responsible Statisticians: Stephen Pottinger / Email: ehs@levellingup.gov.uk

Information on Official Statistics is available via the UK Statistics Authority website.

Information about statistics at DLUHC is available via the Department’s website.