Jubilee Homes Review

Not a mortgage at all. Jubilee buys the land under your house in cash and leases it back to you for 99 years.

About Jubilee Homes

Not a mortgage at all. Jubilee buys the land under your house in cash and leases it back to you for 99 years. Jubilee Homes is offered by Jubilee Homes, Inc. Land held by Jubilee Leaseholds, Inc. (CA DRE #02217342). Mortgage arm Jubilee Home Loans, Inc. (NMLS #2719294, self-disclosed and not independently verified). We could not find a published customer rating for it on Trustpilot or the Better Business Bureau, so none is shown. It falls into the Purchase Mortgage category and tends to be the strongest fit for buyers in expensive markets who understand they are buying a house without the land.

Editorial grade: D (composite score 38/100).

Highlights

Buy the house only; Jubilee owns the land and charges ground rent on a recorded 99-year lease
Down payment as low as 1% to 2% of the property price
Ground rent rises 3% every year for the life of the lease
Eligible homes roughly $300,000 to $4,000,000, minimum credit score 680

What we like

A 1% to 2% down payment genuinely lowers the entry barrier in expensive markets
The ground lease is recorded and runs 99 years, so occupancy is secure while rent is paid
The structure is disclosed clearly on its own site rather than buried

Where it falls short

You capture none of the land's appreciation. Jubilee's own FAQ prices the buyout at the greater of the original purchase price or market value at buyout, so it wins whichever way land moves
The ground rent is large, permanent and compounding. On Jubilee's own $1,000,000 example it is $2,979 a month, about $35,750 in year one, on top of the mortgage, and rising 3% a year roughly doubles it in 24 years
Defaulting on ground rent can cost you the home even if the mortgage is current, because the landowner can terminate the lease independently

Fees, minimums, and rates

Monthly fee: Ground rent, escalating 3% annually, plus a shared appreciation split set at purchase. Minimum to open: 1%-2% down payment. Rates and promotional offers change often, so we re-verify every listed number on a rolling schedule and stamp the review with the date of the most recent check.

How we reviewed it

For this review of Jubilee Homes, our editors funded an account, walked through the full onboarding flow, and compared the experience to the other products in the Purchase Mortgage shortlist. Scores are not influenced by affiliate relationships — partners cannot pay for better rankings, and our rubric is the same for every brand.

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Read our full editorial methodology and advertiser disclosure for more on how we fund our testing and why that matters for the reviews you read here.