I'm delighted to support this debate. Land Registry figures show that leaseholds made up 43 per cent of all new-build registrations in England and Wales in 2015, compared to just 22 per cent in 1996. We know that Wales has around 200,000 leasehold homes, with specific hotspots where there are significant levels of new builds being sold under leasehold contracts. Indeed, in 2016, in my own constituency of Aberconwy, we had the highest proportion of new-build leasehold house transactions as a proportion of all new-build house sales at 77 per cent, accounting for 48—that's 48—of the 62 new-build houses sold in 2016. Furthermore, 11.5 per cent—again, now the highest in Wales—of all houses sold in Aberconwy in 2016 were leasehold, alongside 27 per cent of all property transactions. So, it's actually the fourth highest. 

Now, of course, leasehold ownership can sense when it's used for individual flats in larger developments. However, we have concern that far too many new houses are now being built and sold in this way, often without a clear explanation of the implications and costs for the buyer. And I have to tell you that it was quite a scandal when it emerged in Aberconwy. There was a newspaper story and people were approaching me. They did not know that they actually had a leasehold on their property, and some of them were offered to buy them at £3,000, but even then they were only buying the freehold on their property; the land wasn't included in the actual transaction. So, there are several facets to this. 

This potential exploitation—and that's what it is—can see home buyers lumbered with unfair agreements and spiralling ground rents. I know if I was buying property, I would want to know that if I was buying it I owned the land that it stood on, I owned the property and that it was freehold—it was mine. To actually go into a transaction, go through the legal process, go through all the local searches and everything, and then to find out years later in some instances that you don't own the—[Interruption.] Yes.