Ground Leases In Commercial Residential Or Commercial Property Explained UK residential or commercial property law is among the most complicated worldwide. Amongst its lots of instruments is the ground lease. Ground leases are approved by the freeholder of land and structures to a leaseholder, generally with a long lease. This is a semi-permanent arrangement as the lease normally lasts for 125 years or longer and will generally stay in location until the leaseholder chooses to end the lease, sell up and leave. If the lease goes out, then the land and structure( s) are transferred back to the freeholder, unless an extension is granted. The leaseholder will pay both an in advance payment to the freeholder and ground lease, which is typically paid month-to-month or annually. The leaseholder usually holds absolute control of the residential or commercial property within limited covenants and easements specified in the lease agreement. Ground lease is charged applied to the land itself, which stays under freehold ownership throughout the long lease. Essentially then, commercial residential or commercial property ownership through leasehold involves both an in advance payment in-line with the residential or commercial property's market price in combination with annual or monthly ground rent. A Short History of Ground Leases Ground leases are an age-old function of UK residential or commercial property and land law and though they have actually gone through a number of reforms in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 and Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, they remain basically comparable to their middle ages origins. Ground leases happened when much of the UK was owned by 'Landed Estates'. Feudal land barons, knights, earls, viscounts and other members of the British upper class owned the vast majority - or all - of the land.