Question 4 of 11 · Before you buy the condo
Freehold vs Leasehold
When is freehold actually worth paying for — and when isn't it?
“If the freehold home costs more, what exactly are you buying with that premium — and will you own it long enough for the difference to matter?”
Benny, Best Buy Condo
Tenure is the one attribute people are happy to argue about without ever pricing it.
Tenure is one attribute, not the whole answer
Freehold, 999-year and 99-year describe how long the land interest runs. That's genuinely important — but it sits alongside price, location, product, age, layout and buyer pool, and it doesn't automatically outrank any of them.
A 99-year lease does decay, and that decay becomes more visible as the remaining term shortens, particularly around financing and the buyer pool late in the lease. Over a shorter holding period, it may barely register in your experience of the home.
Freehold or a very long tenure tends to matter more when the holding period is long, when there's a legacy or multi-generation intention, when redevelopment optionality is part of the thinking, or simply when permanence is worth something to you personally.
And note the labels are not always what people assume. The Robertson Opus, for example, is a 999-year leasehold commencing 1841 — not freehold — which is precisely the kind of detail I'd verify rather than infer from a conversation.
What Benny is looking for
Four things I'd want settled before the tenure debate starts.
01
The size of the premium, in dollars
Not 'freehold is better'. How much more, in total price, for the comparable alternative? Until that number exists, there's nothing to weigh.
02
Your realistic holding period
Ten years and forty years are different decisions. Tenure compounds with time; if your horizon is short, you're paying today for a difference someone else experiences.
03
What you give up to fund the premium
The premium usually comes out of something — size, floor, location, condition or age. That trade is the actual decision.
04
Product and age, honestly compared
A younger leasehold home can compete strongly with an older freehold one on layout, facilities, condition and quantum. Sometimes the older freehold still wins. I'd rather compare than assume.
Where I'd push back
“Don't let the tenure label do the thinking for you.”
Benny, Best Buy Condo
A weaker freehold property at the wrong price is not automatically better than a strong leasehold home — and a leasehold home is not a mistake simply because a longer-tenure alternative exists somewhere. Tenure is one input into a decision with six or seven inputs. Treat it as a line item you price, not a badge that ends the conversation.
The premium exercise
Leasehold option
Your shortlisted home. Note the total price, size, floor, condition and location.
Baseline
Longer-tenure option
Say the comparable alternative is 15% more in total price — write down what you'd give up to fund it.
+15% (hypothetical)
So what's the right premium?
There isn't a magic number, and anyone who offers you one is guessing. What you can do is write the trade explicitly: '15% more, and I give up 150 sq ft and eight floors, and I plan to hold for twelve years.' Read that sentence back.
If the sentence still sounds reasonable to you, the premium is probably defensible for your situation. If it doesn't, the label was doing the thinking.
Benny's 30-second check
Four questions. Nothing here is saved or sent anywhere.
“If you can't say what the premium costs you, you can't yet say whether it's worth it.”
Benny, Best Buy Condo
See this thinking in practice
Three reviews where tenure sits inside a wider trade-off rather than settling it.
Newport Residences
A freehold city home where the long view — holding period and legacy intent — is the honest frame for the tenure question.
Read the Newport Residences reviewThe Robertson Opus
999-year leasehold commencing 1841, and a useful case for weighing tenure against quantum and market response.
Read the The Robertson Opus reviewPenrith
A 99-year home where product, location and quantum carry most of the argument.
Read the Penrith reviewWhere this thought leads
The premium only means something once it's expressed as a total price.
Your holding period is the variable that makes tenure matter, or not.
Tenure and age at the point of sale, not at the point of purchase.
Benny's closing thought
Got a condo in mind? Tenure debates get easier once someone helps you put a number on the trade.
