Owning your own home

On saturday I'm going to view a flat with only 67 years left on the lease. I don't yet know why it's slipped so low and apparently the landlord hasn't looked into the cost of extending, although the estate agent reckons it's be in the region of £25k to extend it. I'm thinking it'll more likely be £40k. My mortgage advisor has said there shouldn't be a problem (which surprised me). Beyond bargaining very hard, what are the poignant things I should be aware of with such a property?

As folk say, use the calculators which are widely available online. You may also be able to agree a price with the freeholder ahead of the sale and have it enshrined in the sale contract (or rather a separate contact which is enacted whilst the vendor still owns it, which enables you to get around the wait-for-two-years thing). We bought a place with 72 years left on the lease and paid £15k to extend, which was a few thousand less than our best estimates.

We paid substantially under the going rate for the area buying this way; I think people were put off by the perceived complexities of extending a lease on top of all the other conveyancing nonsense. Add the cost of extending (and the fees) to the total purchase price and see where you are.