A guide to the Right to Buy Scheme
If you’re a council house or housing association tenant, you might be able to buy your home from your landlord at a discounted price. Find out more in our guide to the Right to Buy Scheme.
If you’re a council house or housing association tenant, you might be able to buy your home from your landlord at a discounted price. Find out more in our guide to the Right to Buy Scheme.
What is Right to Buy?
Right to Buy is a government scheme that helps council tenants – and some housing association tenants – buy their home outright or with a mortgage, by offering discounts.
How much is the Right to Buy discount?
It depends on where you live, how long you’ve been a tenant and whether you live in a house or a flat.
If you applied to buy your home before 21 November 2024, the maximum Right to Buy discount you can get is whichever of these is lower:
- 70% of the value of your property
- £136,400 in London
- £102,400 elsewhere in England.
If you applied on or after 21 November 2024, the maximum discount ranges from £16,000 to £38,000, depending on where in England you live.
For more details of discounts and updates on changes to Right to Buy, see the GOV.UK website.
Do I qualify for Right to Buy?
You could qualify for Right to Buy if:
- You’ve had a public sector landlord for at least three years. For example a council, housing association or NHS trust
- You intend to use your home as your main residence
- The property isn’t shared with others – in other words, it’s self-contained
- You don’t have any large debts and haven’t been declared bankrupt
- You haven’t been threatened with eviction
- Your home isn’t reserved for older or disabled people
- There isn’t a shortage of housing in your area.
How do I find out if I’m eligible for Right to Buy?
You can get free advice on your Right to Buy eligibility from the Right to Buy Agent service.
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Did you know? The qualifying period of three years doesn’t need to be continuously in the same house with the same landlord. You may still qualify if you’ve spent time in different homes with different landlords, as long as it was a public sector tenancy. |
How do I apply for Right to Buy?
To apply for Right to Buy, you’ll need to:
- Fill in an RTB1 Right to Buy application form and send it to your landlord.
- Your landlord must reply within four weeks. If they refuse to let you buy, they must explain their decision.
- If the answer is ‘yes,’ your landlord will need to send you an offer letter called a Section 125 Notice. This will set out the terms and conditions of the sale and will include:
- A description of the property
- The purchase price after discount
- An estimate of service charges for the first five years if you’re buying a flat or leasehold house
- Any structural defects the landlord knows about.
If you’d like to challenge the valuation, you can get an independent view from the Valuation Office Agency from HM Revenue & Customs.
You’ll have 12 weeks to decide whether to go ahead and buy your home or not. Alternatively, you can pull out of buying the property and carry on renting.
Can I make a joint application?
You might be able to make a joint application for Right to Buy with:
- Someone who shares your tenancy
- A spouse or civil partner
- Up to three family members, but you’ll need to have lived together for at least a year.
If you’re buying with someone else, you count the years of whoever’s been a public sector tenant the longest to work out the discount you may be entitled to.
Why might my landlord refuse to sell?
Your landlord might refuse to sell you your home under certain circumstances, for example:
- If your home has a design, location and features particularly suitable for occupation by elderly people.
- Your landlord has served notice that your home is due to be demolished.
- If it’s sheltered housing for elderly or disabled people.
- If it’s a house or flat on land that’s been bought for development and is being used temporarily until the land is developed.
- If it’s in a rural area in a designated National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
- If it’s considered a ‘defective dwelling’.
If your landlord refuses to sell because your home is suitable for housing elderly people, you can make an appeal to the Residential Property Tribunal. You must do this within 56 days after your landlord’s refusal, otherwise you might lose the right to appeal.
Do I have a Right to Buy if I’m a housing association tenant?
If you live in an ex-council home and the council sold the property to a public-sector landlord while you were living there, you could still qualify under what’s known as a Preserved Right to Buy. This means you’ll have the same discounts as Right to Buy council tenants.
If you don’t have a Preserved Right to Buy, you may still be able to buy your property under the Right to Acquire scheme, but the discounts offered are lower.
What is Right to Acquire and am I eligible?
Right to Acquire allows people renting their home from a housing association to buy the property at a discounted price.
The discounts vary from £9,000 to £16,000, depending on where you live. To find out what it would be for where you live, see a list of Right to Acquire discounts by location.
To be eligible, you must have been a housing association tenant or had another public sector landlord, like the armed services or NHS, for at least three years. Plus, the property has to be eligible too.
Your home must be:
- Built or bought by a housing association after 31 March 1997 (and funded through a social housing grant provided by the Housing Corporation or local council) OR transferred from a local council to a housing association after 31 March 1997
- Self-contained
- Your main or only home.
What is Voluntary Right to Buy?
Voluntary Right to Buy was aimed at extending Right to Buy to housing association tenants.
Pilot schemes were run in 2016 and 2018. However, it has not been extended.
Is Right to Buy available throughout the UK?
The full Right to Buy scheme is only available in England. It’s no longer available in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
Getting a mortgage
If you’re happy with the purchase price and decide to go ahead with the sale, you’ll need to let your landlord know in writing within 12 weeks of receiving your Section 125 Notice.
At this point, you can start looking for a mortgage, if you need one.
Buying a home and taking on a mortgage is a big financial commitment. You’ll need to consider all the costs involved, not just your mortgage repayments. You’ll no longer be a tenant, so all the costs for maintaining your home will be your responsibility.
As a tenant, you might have been claiming housing benefit to help with the rent. You won’t be able to claim this for help repaying your mortgage. However, you might be eligible for Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) – a government loan that’s designed to help you pay just the interest on your mortgage, not the amount you borrowed.
Find out if you’re eligible for Support Mortgage Interest.
If your circumstances change and you can’t keep up with your mortgage repayments, you could lose your home. If this happens, the council doesn’t have to give you another tenancy.
Applying for a mortgage is a big decision and there’s a lot to consider, so it’s a good idea to get independent financial advice before you go ahead.
Do you need a deposit with Right to Buy?
Many, but not all, mortgage providers will accept a Right to Buy discount as a deposit.
So, if you’re buying a £250,000 property with a discount of £25,000, for example, a lender may offer you a mortgage on the remaining £225,000 without you needing a deposit. In some cases, though, they’ll expect you to have saved your own deposit in addition to the discount.
How much would I need to borrow?
The amount you’ll need to borrow depends on the purchase price of your home, less the discount and/or mortgage deposit.
Use our mortgage calculator to help you work out how much you could afford to borrow.
When you apply for a mortgage, lenders will look carefully at your finances and check your credit score before deciding whether to lend to you. They’ll want to know your income, along with any outstanding loans, credit cards or other debts you have, so it’s a good idea to get your finances in order before you put in your application.
Compare the Market Limited acts as a credit broker, not a lender. To apply you must be a UK resident and aged 18 or over. Credit is subject to status and eligibility.
What other costs are involved with buying my home?
There are several costs and fees associated with buying a home. You may need to consider:
- Arrangement fees if you’re taking out a mortgage
- Mortgage booking fee
- Solicitor’s fees
- Valuation fee
- Survey fees
- Land Registry fee to register you as the new owner
- Stamp Duty (depending on the price you pay for your property).
You’ll also need to think about your ongoing costs once the sale goes through:
- Mortgage repayments – your monthly payments are based on the interest rate and mortgage term (or length).
- Upkeep costs – if you buy a leasehold flat you’ll need to factor in ground rent and a service charge for the upkeep of the property.
- Home insurance – mortgage lenders typically ask that you have buildings insurance in place as part of the mortgage agreement. If you buy your council house as a freehold, you’ll be responsible for taking out adequate buildings insurance cover. If the property is leasehold, the council will arrange buildings insurance that will be included in your annual service charge.
- If you want insurance for the items in your home, you’ll also need contents insurance.
- Mortgage protection insurance – this could give you the peace of mind that your mortgage repayments will be covered if you lost your job or became ill.
- Life insurance – could cover the cost of your mortgage and provide financial security for your family if you died.
Remember: your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
Will I get the full Right to Buy discount?
You should be aware that you might not get the full discount. This is because of a special rule called the ‘cost floor’. If the home you’re buying has been recently purchased or built by your landlord, or they’ve spent money on repairing or maintaining it, your discount will be reduced to factor in these costs.
What’s more, if the cost of repairs and maintenance works carried out over a 10-year period (15 years if your home was built or acquired by your landlord after 2 April 2012) is more than the market value of your home, you won’t get a discount at all.
If you don’t agree with the cost floor, the size of your discount or anything else in the Section 125 Notice, you should contact your landlord. If you can’t come to an agreement, you have the right to take your complaint to the County Court. Just bear in mind that this can be very expensive, so make sure you get legal advice first.
Also, if you’ve previously bought another council property under Right to Buy, the discount you received then will usually be deducted from the discount you’re getting to buy again.
Can I sell my Right to Buy home?
Yes, you can sell your home at any time. But if you sell within the first five years of purchase you may have to pay back some or all of the discount.
Compare mortgage lenders
If you decide to go ahead with the Right to Buy scheme, then it’s likely you’ll need a mortgage to pay for your home. Our mortgage calculator is a simple-to-use tool that can help you work out how much you could borrow.
Looking for mortgage advice?
Our partners, London & Country Mortgages Ltd (L&C)** provide fee-free expert advice on Right to Buy mortgages. Get in touch with one of their advisers here:
About London & Country Mortgages Ltd (L&C)
**London & Country Mortgages Ltd (L&C) are a multi-award winning mortgage broker with over 20 years’ experience in helping people secure their perfect mortgage. Advice is provided by L&C, who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (143002). L&C are not part of Compare the Market Limited. Compare the Market receive a % of the commission that our partner London & Country earns. All applications are subject to lending and eligibility criteria.
L&C will not charge you a broker fee should you decide to proceed with a mortgage.
Frequently asked questions
Can I buy any council house with a Right to Buy mortgage?
No, you can only use a Right to Buy mortgage to buy the council or housing association home you currently live in.
Can I use Right to Buy if I have bad credit?
Having bad credit shouldn’t prevent you from accessing the Right to Buy Scheme. But a bad credit rating could make it more difficult to get a mortgage from a mainstream lender.
Depending on the severity of your credit issues, you may need to look for a specialist lender. However, they may impose certain conditions, such as a larger deposit and a higher interest rate.
Can I get a Right to Buy mortgage if I’m self-employed?
Being self-employed shouldn’t affect your eligibility for Right to Buy. But mortgage lenders will need evidence of your income.
Criteria can vary among lenders, but most will want to see at least two years’ worth of accounts as well as your SA302 form and tax overview.
The Editorial Team - Compare the Market
Experts in personal finance, insurance and utilities
Compare the Market’s Editorial Team is made up of industry experts with decades of experience in personal finance, insurance and utilities. Each of our authors has an area of expertise, where they can share their extensive experience to help you get a better deal, by finding the right product and saving money.