How many leaseholders are there?

Ultimately we'd expect the data to come from:

• Land Registry
• Census
• Companies House (tracking RMCs)

MHCLG has made estimates over the years. There are about 5 million leaseholders in England and Wales.

Complications

• One leaseholder may hold multiple leases (e.g., own several flats)
• Some leaseholders are companies
• Some leases may cover two or many more flats
• Some flats are not subject to leases (e.g., they are owned by the freeholder of the building)
• Some leasehold flats are unoccupied
• Some leasehold flats comprise multiple households in an HMO
• Leases may be held jointly between multiple persons (who themselves may own multiple leases)
• Shared Ownership is generally a type of leasehold
• A dwelling may be subject to multiple leases - the head lessee is itself a leaseholder
• There are commonhold flats, and share-of-freehold flats. The latter is leasehold, the former not.
• Commercial premises also have leaseholders, and may be part of a mixed-use building
• The common parts of some developments are themselves leasehold

Controversy

The civil service's estimates of the size of the residential leasehold sector was subject to long-running dispute with Leasehold Knowledge Partnership

Links

Estimating the number of leasehold dwellings in England, 2016 to 2017

What’s the probability that government leasehold statistics are still useless?

Lies, damned lies and statistics

Estimates of Leasehold Dwellings in England

Blocks of flats in London

What are Unbroken Blocks of Flats?