Right to Buy

Originally the discount was up to 60% for a house and 70% for a flat, however, in April 2012 the limit was raised to £75,000 and in March 2013 this was further increased to £100,000 for properties in London. The discount is based on the number of years you have been a council tenant. If the property is sold within three years a proportion of the discount needs to be returned. Need to have been a social tenant for 5 years.

If you live in a house, you can get a discount of 35 per cent after 5 years tenancy. For each extra year that you have been a tenant, you get another 1 per cent, up to a maximum of 60 per cent. If you live in a flat, you can get a discount of 50 per cent after 5 years as a tenant. For each extra year that you have been a tenant, you get another 2 per cent, up to a maximum of 70 per cent.

The Right to Buy is available to secure tenants of local authorities and non-charitable housing associations, and to assured tenants of registered providers (housing associations) who moved with their homes from a local authority to a housing association as part of a stock transfer (‘Preserved Right to Buy’)

At present many councils have transferred management and partial ownership of council properties to Housing Associations. So you may be dealing with your managing housing association rather than the local council when purchasing your council property. Technically housing associations are not-for-profit organisations and deemed to be part of the voluntary housing sector and may access government grants and loans. Their role is to potentially increase access to low cost housing to the public mainly through building managing and selling shared ownership housing. See shared ownership. Councils however, need compliance from the tenants before transferring to a housing association.