A council tenant applying for Right to Buy today faces a scheme that already looks very different from the one their neighbour may have used a few years ago — and a further, much larger overhaul is now making its way through Parliament.
Getting the sequence right matters. The maximum discounts were cut sharply in November 2024, so those lower limits already apply. The more fundamental changes — including a ten-year qualifying period and much smaller percentage discounts — are contained in the Social Housing Bill and are not yet law.
As of 15 September 2026, the Bill has completed its House of Lords stages, passed its second reading in the House of Commons on 10 September and is continuing through the Commons. Until it receives Royal Assent and the relevant provisions are brought into force, somebody applying today is applying under the existing Right to Buy rules rather than the proposed replacement regime.
Last checked: 15 September 2026.
Does Right to Buy still exist? It depends which nation
Right to Buy is not a single UK-wide scheme, and this is worth establishing before anything else.
It remains in force in England. Scotland abolished Right to Buy from 31 July 2016, while Wales abolished Right to Buy, Preserved Right to Buy and Right to Acquire from 26 January 2019. The Scottish Government’s Right to Buy abolition announcement and the Welsh Government’s summary of the abolition legislation set out those changes.
Northern Ireland retains a separate equivalent, the House Sales Scheme, for qualifying tenants of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. Its rules are different from England’s: the qualifying period is currently five years, with a starting discount of 20%, increasing with further years of tenancy subject to a £24,000 maximum cash discount. The statutory sales scheme for housing-association tenants in Northern Ireland ended in August 2022. The current rules are summarised in the House Sales Scheme guidance.
The rest of this article focuses on England, where Right to Buy remains open but is now in a period of substantial transition.
What applies today, in England
Under the current English rules, a tenant can potentially qualify after three years of eligible public-sector tenancy. Those three years do not need to be continuous or spent with the same landlord.
Right to Buy principally applies to secure council tenants whose property is self-contained and is their only or main home. Some former council tenants whose homes were transferred to a housing association while they were living there retain what is known as Preserved Right to Buy. Other housing-association tenants should not assume they have Right to Buy simply because their landlord is a social landlord: some may instead qualify for the separate Right to Acquire scheme.
For houses, the existing Right to Buy discount starts at 35% after three years. It remains at 35% through five qualifying years and then rises by one percentage point for each additional year, up to a maximum of 70%.
For flats, it starts at 50%, remains there through five years and then rises by two percentage points per additional year, again up to 70%.
Those headline percentages can now give a misleading impression of what a tenant will actually receive, because the percentage is also subject to a much lower regional cash cap. Since 21 November 2024, maximum cash discounts have ranged from £16,000 to £38,000, depending on location. The current figures are listed in the government’s Right to Buy discount guidance.
Take a tenant buying a council flat valued at £250,000. On the percentage calculation alone, somebody entitled to the starting 50% flat discount might appear to qualify for £125,000 off the price. But in most London boroughs the current maximum cash discount is £16,000, so the maximum discount would instead be £16,000 and the purchase price around £234,000 before considering any further adjustment. In the South West, where the general cap is £30,000, the same £250,000 flat would be capped at £30,000 rather than £125,000.
That difference is why the old idea of Right to Buy routinely delivering discounts of 50%, 60% or 70% of a home’s value no longer describes what many applicants will actually receive.
There is another restriction that can reduce the discount further: the cost-floor rule. For applications made from 21 November 2024, the landlord looks at qualifying expenditure on building, acquiring, repairing and maintaining the home over a 30-year period. The discount cannot normally reduce the purchase price below the applicable cost floor, and in some cases recent or substantial landlord investment can reduce the discount considerably or eliminate it altogether.
The regional cash cap is therefore a maximum, not a promise.
Selling after Right to Buy: two different time limits
There are two resale restrictions under the current system, and they’re easy to confuse.
If the property is sold within five years of the Right to Buy purchase, some or all of the discount normally has to be repaid. All of it is generally repayable during the first year, falling to 80% in the second, 60% in the third, 40% in the fourth and 20% in the fifth. The repayment calculation also reflects the property’s value when it is resold rather than simply requiring repayment of the original number of pounds received.
Separately, if the property is sold within ten years, the owner must normally first offer it back to the former landlord or another social landlord in the area at market value. If the social landlord does not agree to buy within the specified period, the property can then be sold on the open market.
The government’s Right to Buy selling guidance explains both rules.
The ten-year requirement is therefore not currently a ten-year discount-repayment period. The present clawback period is five years; ten years is the separate right-of-first-refusal period.
What’s confirmed but not yet law: the bigger overhaul
The next reform package goes much further than the November 2024 discount cut.
The Social Housing Bill is now progressing through Parliament. Its current text and parliamentary stages can be followed on the official Social Housing Bill page.
The central difference between today’s scheme and the version currently proposed is significant enough to see in one place:
| Current Right to Buy | Proposed under the Social Housing Bill | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum qualifying tenancy | 3 years | 10 years |
| House discount | Starts at 35%, rising towards 70%, subject to cash cap | Starts at 5% after 10 years |
| Flat discount | Starts at 50%, rising towards 70%, subject to cash cap | Same new structure as houses |
| Maximum percentage | 70% | 15% |
| Regional cash cap | £16,000–£38,000 | Still applies; lower of percentage or cash cap |
| New social homes | Cost-floor protection applies, but no general 35-year Right to Buy exclusion | Proposed 35-year exemption |
| Owning another residential property | No equivalent blanket prohibition in the current scheme | Proposed restriction for applicants and certain partners, subject to exceptions |
| Discount repayment after resale | Up to 5 years | Proposed 10 years |
| Landlord’s right of first refusal | 10 years | Proposed to apply indefinitely |
The table shows why describing the reforms as simply “another cut to the discount” understates them. They would substantially narrow who can use the scheme as well as how much discount is available.
A qualifying period extended from three years to ten. The Bill would require a tenant to have accumulated at least ten years of qualifying public-sector tenancy before exercising Right to Buy, rather than the three years required today.
A much smaller percentage discount. The proposed replacement structure starts at 5% of the property’s value after ten qualifying years, increasing by one percentage point for each further year until it reaches a maximum of 15%, or the applicable regional cash cap if that is lower. The government’s guide to the Social Housing Bill sets out the principal changes.
The practical difference can be substantial. Take the same £250,000 flat in the South West used earlier. Under today’s rules, a tenant with enough qualifying years could still be limited by the regional £30,000 cash cap, producing a purchase price of around £220,000 before any cost-floor adjustment. Under the proposed scheme, somebody reaching the new ten-year qualification point would start with a 5% percentage discount — £12,500 on a £250,000 property — because that would be lower than the £30,000 regional cap.
That is not a prediction of what either individual would ultimately pay; valuation, qualifying tenancy history, the cost floor and the final legislation still matter. It does show the scale of the policy change.
A 35-year exemption for newly built social homes. Newly built social and affordable homes covered by the legislation would generally be protected from Right to Buy for 35 years after construction, reducing the risk that councils build new stock only to lose it to discounted sales soon afterwards.
More properties and applicants would be excluded. The Bill would also protect designated rural housing and certain other categories from Right to Buy. As the Bill currently stands, it would prevent the right being exercised where an applicant — or, subject to specified exceptions, their spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner — owns another residential property in the UK or overseas. It also tightens the position for people who have previously benefited from Right to Buy.
The resale restrictions would become longer. The Bill proposes extending the discount-repayment period from five years to ten years, while extending the social landlord’s right of first refusal beyond the current ten years so that it would apply indefinitely.
One change sometimes described alongside this package has already happened. Councils are already able to retain 100% of their Right to Buy receipts, with greater flexibility over using those receipts for replacement housing. That is part of the policy response already in place, not something tenants are waiting for the Social Housing Bill to create.
Does applying before the rules change protect today’s terms?
This is an important question for somebody already eligible under the current three-year rule, but it needs answering more cautiously than simply saying “apply before the deadline and today’s rules are locked in”.
When the cash discount caps changed in November 2024, applications lodged before the change were expressly protected under the previous higher caps. That does not automatically tell us how the forthcoming primary legislation will treat every application already in progress when the new reforms commence.
The Social Housing Bill contains commencement provisions and gives government power to make transitional or saving arrangements. The different Right to Buy provisions also do not all necessarily have to begin on exactly the same day. During the Bill’s Lords stages, amendments seeking greater protection for existing tenants against the move from three years to ten were debated and rejected.
The safe conclusion at this stage is therefore that nobody should assume that merely submitting an application before Royal Assent or commencement automatically guarantees every current rule will continue to apply to that application. The final Act, commencement dates and any transitional regulations will determine that.
That does not mean timing is irrelevant. Somebody who is already seriously considering exercising Right to Buy has a genuine reason to follow the Bill closely and avoid assuming the current scheme will remain unchanged indefinitely. But the prospect of less generous future rules is not, by itself, a reason to make a financially poor purchase today.
Buying with family
Current rules allow a Right to Buy purchase to be made jointly with somebody who shares the tenancy and, in appropriate cases, with family members who are not themselves tenants.
Up to three qualifying family members can generally join where the property has been their only or main home for at least the preceding twelve months. Spouses and civil partners are treated somewhat differently and are not subject to that same twelve-month residence requirement, although the property still needs to be their only or main home.
This can matter for mortgage affordability because additional buyers may bring additional income into the lender’s assessment. But becoming a joint owner is a significant legal and financial commitment, not simply a way of adding someone’s salary to an application. The applicants need to understand how the ownership will be held, who is responsible for the mortgage and what happens if somebody later wants to leave, sell or dies.
The proposed reforms make that worth considering even more carefully, because the Bill now contains restrictions connected with ownership of other residential property that could affect a future application where an applicant or relevant partner already owns another home.
A discount doesn’t mean the purchase is affordable
This deserves emphasis because the discount is the number most likely to dominate the decision.
A Right to Buy purchaser still needs to fund the remaining purchase price, usually with a mortgage, and has to pass the lender’s affordability and credit assessment. There are also legal fees, survey costs and the normal expenses of becoming a homeowner.
Where Stamp Duty Land Tax is due, a qualifying Right to Buy transaction is assessed on the discounted price actually paid, rather than on the undiscounted open-market valuation. HMRC explains the treatment in its SDLT relief guidance.
For somebody buying a flat, the transition from tenant to leaseholder is particularly important. The council or other freeholder remains responsible for managing and maintaining the wider building under the lease, but the new leaseholder becomes responsible for their share of service charges and major works.
There is useful protection at the beginning of that ownership. The landlord’s formal Section 125 offer for a leasehold property must contain estimates of service charges and improvement contributions for the initial five-year reference period. During the protected period, the landlord cannot normally charge more for the relevant estimated repair and improvement works than the amounts stated in the offer, apart from permitted inflationary increases. The government’s Right to Buy guide explains how those protections operate.
More importantly, the Section 125 notice is where the general idea of “buying at a discount” becomes an actual property transaction. It tells the tenant the landlord’s market valuation, the discount being allowed, whether the cost floor has reduced that discount, the resulting purchase price, the property and land included, known structural defects and — for leasehold purchases — the initial service-charge estimates.
A tenant normally has 12 weeks after receiving the offer to say whether they want to proceed, and can withdraw from the sale and continue renting. If they believe the landlord’s market valuation is too high, they can ask for an independent district valuer determination within the prescribed period. The government’s guidance on the landlord’s offer explains that process.
That makes the Section 125 stage a particularly useful point at which to reassess the purchase rather than viewing the original RTB1 application as an irreversible commitment.
If the offer says the flat is worth £250,000, the discount is only £16,000 after the regional cap, and the service-charge estimates show substantial expenditure ahead, the real decision is based on those figures — not on the 50% headline discount a tenant may have read about before applying.
After the initial five-year protection, major-works liabilities can become much less predictable. A buyer therefore needs to look beyond the protected estimates and ask what longer-term repairs, refurbishment or improvement programmes are known or likely for the block.
A £20,000 or £30,000 purchase discount can look very different if the household has stretched its mortgage affordability to the limit and then becomes responsible for service charges, repairs and future capital works that were previously the landlord’s responsibility.
Restrictions worth being aware of
Not every council tenant or council property can be bought.
Current exclusions include various forms of specialist and sheltered accommodation, some housing particularly suitable for elderly or disabled people, and homes affected by demolition proposals. Bankruptcy, debt-relief arrangements and possession proceedings can also affect an application.
The current government Right to Buy guide provides the starting eligibility rules, but the landlord ultimately has to determine whether the particular tenancy and property qualify.
Tenants of housing associations should be especially careful not to assume the words “social housing” automatically mean Right to Buy. Some have Preserved Right to Buy because of the history of the property and tenancy; others may qualify for Right to Acquire; others may have neither.
The policy debate, briefly and fairly
Right to Buy sits at a genuine and long-running policy disagreement.
Supporters see it as a route into homeownership for long-standing tenants who might otherwise have little realistic prospect of buying, allowing households to build an asset from a home and community in which they may already have lived for many years. More than two million homes have been sold under Right to Buy in England since the scheme began, making it one of the most significant homeownership policies of the past half-century.
Critics point to what happens to the rental stock afterwards. A council home sold into private ownership is no longer available to a future household on the social housing waiting list, and replacement building has not historically matched losses consistently enough to prevent pressure on the remaining stock. That concern becomes particularly acute in expensive areas and in places where certain types of property — larger family homes or affordable housing in rural communities, for example — are especially difficult to replace.
That connects directly with the waiting-list pressures covered in our companion article on how social housing priority and allocation work. The government has explicitly presented the November 2024 discount reductions and the Social Housing Bill reforms as an attempt to retain more social homes while keeping a narrower Right to Buy route for long-standing tenants.
England is therefore choosing restriction and redesign rather than the outright abolition previously chosen in Scotland and Wales.
Where this leaves a tenant deciding today
Someone already eligible under today’s three-year rule is making a decision under a scheme that still exists but has already become considerably less generous than it was before November 2024.
The first question is not simply “what percentage discount am I entitled to?” It is what the actual Section 125 purchase price will be after the regional cash cap and any cost-floor adjustment have been applied.
For a flat buyer, that figure then needs to sit alongside the five-year service-charge estimates, the condition of the block and the prospect of major works later. For every buyer, it needs to sit alongside the mortgage payment, insurance, repairs and the loss of the protections that came with being a tenant.
The Section 125 offer gives the buyer something the headline rules cannot: the numbers and terms for their particular home. Until that arrives, a tenant may know that they have Right to Buy without yet knowing whether exercising it makes financial sense.
The second question is timing. The Social Housing Bill is clearly intended to narrow the scheme substantially, but the final commencement and transition arrangements still matter. Somebody already eligible should therefore follow those arrangements rather than assuming either that today’s rules will last indefinitely or that filing an application automatically freezes them.
Anyone who has not yet reached today’s three-year qualification point should be particularly cautious about planning on the assumption that today’s scheme will still exist unchanged when they do. The legislation now before Parliament is explicitly designed to make Right to Buy a route for much longer-standing tenants and to reduce the size of the percentage discount substantially.
The useful question is therefore no longer just “Can I exercise Right to Buy?”
It is whether the property still represents a sound and sustainable purchase at the actual price and ownership costs that apply to you.
This article provides general information about Right to Buy in England, with brief comparison to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Eligibility rules, discount calculations, parliamentary proposals, commencement arrangements and transitional provisions can change and depend on individual circumstances. Before making a purchase decision, confirm the current position with your landlord and obtain appropriate independent legal, mortgage or housing advice.
