What Is Marriage Value in a Lease Extension?

When a lease has fewer than 80 years remaining, it starts to affect the property's market value. Buyers become cautious, mortgage lenders apply restrictions, and the flat is worth less than it would be with a longer lease. Extending the lease removes that discount — the property becomes more valuable.

Marriage value is the name for that increase in value.

Under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, when a lease is below 80 years, the leaseholder must pay the freeholder 50% of this uplift as part of the lease extension premium. This is in addition to the standard components of the premium — the reversion value and the ground rent capitalisation.

The term "marriage value" reflects the idea that combining a short lease (which has a depressed value) with a lease extension (which creates value) produces something worth more than the sum of its parts — and legislation requires the leaseholder to share that created value with the freeholder.

For a leaseholder whose lease has recently fallen below 80 years — or who did not know this rule existed — it can explain why the premium feels unexpectedly high. See our guide to typical lease extension costs for context on what the premium components typically look like in total.

The 80-year rule comes directly from the 1993 Act. It is a statutory provision, not a market convention or surveyor practice. This makes the threshold sharper than many leaseholders expect.

The statutory formula for marriage value is, in principle, straightforward:

1. 1Establish the current value of the flat with the short lease
2. 2Establish the value of the flat after the lease has been extended
3. 3The marriage value is the difference
4. 4The freeholder receives 50%

In practice, steps 1 and 2 are not fixed numbers. They are valuations — professional opinions that depend on assumptions, particularly the deferment rate applied to the freeholder's interest. Within the range that courts and tribunals have accepted as reasonable, a freeholder's surveyor and a leaseholder's surveyor can produce materially different valuations using exactly the same methodology.

This is not a failure of the system. It is how valuation works. Two qualified surveyors can reach different conclusions without either being wrong in a technical sense.

The consequence is that the marriage value figure in a freeholder's opening quote is often at the higher end of what can be defended — because the freeholder's surveyor has applied assumptions that produce a larger uplift and, therefore, a larger freeholder share.

Three different answers for the same property under the same law. The freeholder's surveyor produces a marriage value that is over 40% higher than the leaseholder's surveyor — a difference of £7,500 on the freeholder's share alone. The tribunal lands between them, but closer to the leaseholder's figure.

This pattern — freeholder high, tribunal lower — is not universal, but it is common. Understanding that the marriage value in your quote is a valuation, not a fact, is the starting point for evaluating whether it is reasonable.

When a leaseholder and freeholder cannot agree a lease extension premium — including the marriage value component — either party can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to have it determined. Tribunals review evidence from both sides' surveyors and issue reasoned, published decisions.

These decisions are the most useful real-world evidence available on what marriage value actually looks like in practice. They show not just what formula produces what number, but what an independent panel determined was fair when the freeholder's figure and the leaseholder's figure were both presented and tested.

The pattern that emerges is informative. Freeholder opening positions on the marriage value component are frequently above what tribunals ultimately determine. This does not mean that every high quote is unreasonable — some are within the range tribunals would award. But it does mean that a freeholder's opening figure is a starting position, not a ceiling.

Calculators can estimate marriage value using the statutory formula, but they reproduce the same valuation uncertainty described above — the result depends on the assumptions you enter. Real tribunal decisions show what independent panels have actually determined in comparable cases. Our methodology page explains how LeaseIntel uses tribunal decisions rather than formula assumptions.

If your lease currently has more than 80 years remaining, marriage value does not apply to your extension. That may change — and the cost of allowing it to change can be substantial.

The extension process — whether informal or statutory — takes time. A statutory extension involves serving a Section 42 Notice, waiting for the freeholder's counter-notice (up to two months), then negotiating a price or applying to tribunal. From first instruction to completion, 6–12 months is realistic. If your lease is at 82 years and you wait six months before starting, you may find yourself closer to the threshold — or below it — by the time the process concludes.

The cost difference between extending above and below the 80-year mark is not marginal. On a mid-value London flat, it can easily reach £15,000–£30,000. Acting before the threshold is almost always the right financial decision if you plan to extend at all.

A RICS-qualified surveyor can give you a preliminary view on the likely premium at your current lease length and what the cost might look like if you were to cross below 80 years. That conversation is worth having sooner rather than later.