Leasehold houses are a North West story
Nationally 6.1% of houses sell leasehold. In Oldham it is 63.5%.
Nationally one house in sixteen sells leasehold. In Oldham it is closer to two in three.
Arm's-length residential sales (category A), 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. 635,379 transactions in the window.
The evidence
Houses only — detached, semi-detached and terraced. Flats are excluded, because leasehold is the norm for flats and would drown the signal. Towns with at least 200 qualifying house sales in the window; 635 towns qualify, and the full list is in the CSV.
| Town | House sales | Sold leasehold | Leasehold share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oldham | 1,747 | 1,109 | 63.5% |
| Lytham St Annes | 509 | 322 | 63.3% |
| Bolton | 2,651 | 1,621 | 61.1% |
| Bury | 1,101 | 659 | 59.9% |
| Accrington | 708 | 422 | 59.6% |
| Nelson | 504 | 287 | 56.9% |
| Heywood | 321 | 181 | 56.4% |
| Burnley | 1,219 | 670 | 55.0% |
| Rochdale | 1,147 | 583 | 50.8% |
| Leigh | 501 | 252 | 50.3% |
| England & Wales | 533,752 | 32,411 | 6.1% |
Leasehold houses sell at a median -5.8% against freehold houses of the same type in the same postcode district (647 qualifying pairs, at least 10 sales each side).
How we calculated this
We count sales of houses only — detached, semi-detached and terraced, excluding flats and maisonettes, where leasehold is the norm — and take the share recorded with a leasehold title. Towns are reported where at least 200 qualifying house sales were recorded in the window.
The price discount pairs leasehold against freehold within the same postcode district and the same property type, requiring at least 10 sales on each side, and takes the median across qualifying pairs.
What this can't tell you
Price Paid Data records the title as leasehold or freehold but not the lease length, the ground rent or the service charge — the three things that decide how much a leasehold title actually costs its owner. The paired discount describes what sold, not what any individual home is worth, and it cannot separate a short lease from a long one.
Source and licence
HM Land Registry Price Paid Data — arm's-length residential sales (category A), 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 (635,379 transactions), analysed by Offrly.
Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Free to reproduce with attribution to Offrly and HM Land Registry. The data behind this page · Open Government Licence v3.0
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