Difference between freehold and leasehold property

People after staying associated with the real estate sector for years find it difficult to differentiate between the freehold properties and leasehold properties. They make wrong purchasing decisions without taking in consideration the difference between them.
Freehold property
A freehold property is a property which gives full legal rights to the owners to live and use the property. He is the owner of the property until he further sells the property to someone else. Generally people like to purchase residential, commercial or industrial properties which are freehold but in some situations the properties are not being offered for freehold. Freehold lands mostly are not offered to foreigners. An example of that could be in Saudi Arabia where only nationals can buy the freehold lands and not the foreigners. Dubai, U.S and UK once also did not offer freehold land to the foreigners but looking up to the opportunities and growth of the real estate sector they started offering freehold properties to the foreigners as well. The people who are unable to get a freehold property go for a leasehold property.
Leasehold property
The Leasehold property on the other hand is a property which only gives the buyer a right to live in the property or use it for commercial purposes for a specific period. It does not transfer the ownership to the buyer. Most of the commercial properties and flats are provided to the customers on leasehold contracts which assure that the person could use the property but the ownership lies with the actual owner of the land. The person who buys a leasehold property has to pay the communal maintenance and repair cost. Some of the properties have leasehold for life time (roughly 99 years) which is further extendable. In such cases the leasehold property has right of lease transfer through inheritance.
Generally freehold properties are better and much more expensive than the leasehold properties as there are fewer complications involved in it. Moreover, the freehold properties give more right and responsibility to the owner.
Intelligent investors also make investments in freehold commercial and industrial projects because they know they can get higher returns from them. But in some situations like in Saudi Arabian real estate market where there is no option for freehold properties for the foreigners, investors have to make investment and purchase leasehold commercial and residential properties.