Understanding your council leasehold
Last updated: 11 February 2026
Next review: 11 February 2027
How leaseholds work
When you buy your council home, you buy the leasehold interest in the property. We keep the freehold interest.
This leasehold is a legal agreement between you and us. Once the lease period ends, the rights over the land and building return to the council.
What you own as a council leaseholder
- the walls, ceilings and floors inside your home
- cisterns, tanks, drains, pipes, wires and ducts serving your home only
- doors and door frames inside your home
- the surfaces of walls that are inside your home
- gardens and pathways which lead to your home only and are inside the legal boundaries of your home.