Meaning & use
leasehold
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountablelegal
The right to use a building or land for an agreed number of years, in return for rent, without owning the land permanently.
Grammar: Uncountable as a type of ownership: held on leasehold. Countable for a particular property: a leasehold.
Patterns
- hold something on leasehold
- buy something as a leasehold
They bought the flat on a leasehold with ninety years remaining.
The shop is held on leasehold from the local council.
Leasehold often means you do not own the ground under your home.
adjectivebefore a nounlegal
Held or sold under a lease, so the owner has the property for a fixed period rather than forever.
Grammar: Usually comes before a noun: a leasehold property.
Patterns
- a leasehold property
Most flats in the city are leasehold properties.
She was surprised to find the house was leasehold, not freehold.
Word forms
| plural | leaseholds |
|---|
Common combinations
- leasehold property
- A leasehold property can lose value as the lease gets shorter.
- leasehold flat
- We viewed a leasehold flat near the station.
- extend the leasehold
- They paid a fee to extend the leasehold by ninety years.
- on a leasehold basis
- The land is let on a leasehold basis.
- leasehold reform
- Leasehold reform aims to protect owners from high charges.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tenancy
- Tenancy is a broader word for renting and usually describes a shorter agreement, while leasehold is a long-term legal interest in property.
- lease
- Lease is the contract itself, but leasehold names the form of ownership the contract creates.
Opposites
Word family
- leaseholder noun
- a person who holds a property on a lease
- lease noun
- a contract allowing use of property for a period
- lessor noun
- the person who grants a lease
- lessee noun
- the person who is granted a lease
Commonly confused: leasehold or freehold?
leasehold vs freehold
Freehold means you own the building and the land outright and permanently, while leasehold means you hold it only for a set number of years.
Practice
The flat is leasehold, so the buyer ___.
Choose one answer.
Leasehold gives the right to use property for a set number of years. Owning outright forever describes freehold, the tempting wrong option.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “leasehold”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.