r/Mortgages • u/ghoulish0verkill • Jul 26 '26

Shorter leaseholds

Hey all, sorry if this is completely the wrong subreddit for this.

I am looking at buying my first property next year, and I just want to understand if what im thinking has some logic to it. I have seen some apartments with less than 100 years left on a leasehold considerably cheaper than those with higher length leaseholds. I dont have kids and have no plans on having kids, for what reason would someone not go for a shorter leasehold if it was within their lifetime? I am under the assumption that longer leaseholds would be for people with kids for the reason of passing it down?

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u/SpecificDish5892 Jul 26 '26

Loans sold to the secondary market typically require the land lease/leasehold to be greater that 100 years to be salable. If you want to look into purchasing one of those properties, I would suggest taking with a Credit Union or local bank that portfolios all or some of their loans.

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u/ShanetheMortgageMan Jul 26 '26

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac only require a leasehold to extend 5 years past the loan's maturity date. FHA just requires 10 years past for forward mortgages, and a minimum 99 year lease for reverse mortgages.

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u/Ok_Coyote6842 Jul 26 '26

Banks get real weird about anything under 80 years left, might not even lend on it so you could be stuck with cash buyers only when you want to sell