Why Many British Homeowners Don’t Actually Own Their Homes at All

By D. K. Parker

If you are a wealthy Russian worrying about where to store your money, owning a flat in central London is not a bad option.As Boris Johnson1. Boris Johnson: 鮑里斯·約翰遜，現(xiàn)任倫敦市長。, London’s mayor, says, the city is “now globally recognised as such a desirable city that its property is treated effectively as another asset class2. asset class: 資產(chǎn)類別，資產(chǎn)種類?！? Yet how many of those oligarchs realise that in many cases, they are technically not owners but rather tenants?3. oligarch: 寡頭，意指為數(shù)不多的銷售者（在寡頭壟斷市場上，少數(shù)廠商供給該行業(yè)全部或大部分產(chǎn)品，所占份額較大，對市場價格和產(chǎn)量影響很大）；tenant: 承租人，房客。Under English land law, most flats are sold as “l(fā)easeholds”,which is technically a form of long-term tenancy.4. leasehold: 租賃；tenancy: 租期，租用。The buildings and land on which they stand are owned by the “freeholder”5. freeholder: 不動產(chǎn)保有者。. This divide confuses many home buyers—not just oligarchs—and it has odd repercussions6. repercussion: 反響，影響。for England’s cities. So what is the difference between being a leaseholder and a freeholder?

雖然如今的房價不斷高漲，不過仍有很多人想盡辦法買房，想要擁有自己名下的房產(chǎn)，擺脫蝸居現(xiàn)狀。擁有房產(chǎn)的人們更是小心翼翼地保養(yǎng)自家房屋，生怕租客把自己的房子糟蹋了。然而在英國，很多所謂的房主實際上根本沒有自己的房子，他們的房產(chǎn)大都轉(zhuǎn)租出去，自己有時想收都收不回來。

The distinction between a freeholder and a tenant is a feudal one: from the 11th century, freemen owned land on which tenant farmers toiled.7. 出租人和承租人的區(qū)別體現(xiàn)在封建制度中：自11世紀(jì)起，享有市民權(quán)的人們擁有土地，佃戶租用土地對其進行耕作。freemen: 享有市民權(quán)的人；toil: 耕作。In the 18th century, aristocratic families such as the Cadogans sold long leases on their land to developers, allowing the development of London’s “Great Estates”.8. aristocratic: 貴族的；estate: 房地產(chǎn)。Leases9. lease: 租約，租賃協(xié)定。solve a legal problem. When someone buys a house, it is obvious that they own the land beneath it and should be responsible for the building’s upkeep10. upkeep: 維修，保養(yǎng)。. But when several flats are piled on top of each other,it is less clear who is responsible for the building’s structure. Hence the freeholder takes charge for the duration of the lease.

This has the consequence that many people have no idea who really owns their expensive flat. But it also doesn’t much matter. As Graham Winkley of Boodle Hat field, a law firm, says, when a freeholder sells a long lease on land, “they’ve basically already taken their money.” As the result of decades of legislation, leaseholders have firm legal rights. Any tenant who has been in a property for more than two years can renew his lease for another 90 years(albeit sometimes at extremely high cost).11. albeit: 雖然，盡管；extremely: 極其地，非常地。This means that few ever run out12. run out: 到期。. In practice, owning the freehold of a building means owning the right to manage it—and charge a service charge. The developers of new flats tend to issue long leases—typically 99 years or 125 years—and farm out the freehold to management companies.13. 新公寓開發(fā)商傾向長期租賃——通常為99年到125年——并將不動產(chǎn)權(quán)部分轉(zhuǎn)讓給管理公司。farm out: 部分轉(zhuǎn)讓。Does the system work? Not really. The continual renewing of leases confuses property owners and generates money for law firms. Unless they own a share of the freehold, lease-owners cannot easily demand repairs or changes to a building.Freeholds are commonly traded by speculators14. speculator: 投機者。, some of whom try to make money out of abusing15. abuse: 濫用。service charges. In other common-law16. common-law: 習(xí)慣法, 獨立于國家制定法之外，是依據(jù)某種社會權(quán)威確立的，具有一定強制性的行為規(guī)范總和。countries such as America and Canada, flats are sold as “condominiums”, where a corporation owns the building in trust on behalf of residents.17. condominium: 分套購置的公寓；in trust: 受托的。That is a simpler system, where owners’rights are clearer.

In London, perhaps the bigger problem is that leases never run out and freeholders are often difficult to find. Given the city’s housing crisis, it would make sense to demolish low-density homes in many areas and build new ones.18. make sense: 言之有理，講得通；demolish: 拆除；density: 密度。In the 1920s and 1930s, many new flats were built on land where leases expired19. expire: 期滿。all at once. These days, that sort of redevelopment is all but impossible. Even if a single freeholder owned a plot of land, there is no way to deny leaseholders the right to renew or to force them to sell up their share.20. 即使一個不動產(chǎn)保有者擁有一塊土地，他也無法剝奪承租人續(xù)租的權(quán)利或是強迫他們賣掉手中的份額。As a result, old housing is rarely demolished unless it is owned by local authorities (who can push out leaseholders).The only land available for building is ex-industrial land. Londoners are forced to pay ever greater sums of money for the right to be a “tenant”, and never enough new housing is built.