Over the past 20 years flats have generally become a larger share of the properties sold in the UK. As the above graph showed, that even though this share peaked in 2005 at around 25% of total property sales the number of sales per year has remained high at around 20% - twice of what they were in 1995.
The percentage of properties sold in the UK which are houses compared to flats
The graph shows the increasing percentage of properties sold over the past 20 years
In addition, it shows how relatively small levels of migration from multiple rural area are dramatically increasing the population in cities.
The consequence of this is the encouraging of many individuals to live on the same piece of land. The below graph shows the share of new properties sold, between houses and flats. The peak, which was again in 2005 was over 50% of flats and although this share has come down, it is still well over 30% - again twice the share when compared to 1995
The percentage of properties sold in the UK which are houses compared to flats
Flat ownership means that single pieces of land and communal spaces are owned by multiple parties, making the legal obligations and rights more complicated than with single house, where one party may own both the entire structure and the underlying land.
Our research has found that people who have bought freehold houses tend to be split equally between those who are satisfied and dissatisfied with their legal advice during the purchase - with a net satisfaction score of -2%. However, buyers of leasehold flats tend to have much higher levels of dissatisfaction compared to satisfaction with a net satisfaction score of -16%.
The percentage of people surveyed who thought they had enough (white) or not enough (black) legal advice following their purchase
