Right to Buy - Changes due to the 2024 Autumn Budget

Right to Buy (RTB) enables social housing tenants to buy their homes with the benefit of a large discount against the market value. You can check the eligibility criteria at Eligibility - Own Your Home - Own Your Home

Currently, the maximum discount on offer is £102,400.00 across England and £136,400.00 in London boroughs.  It should be noted that this is the maximum discount and not the amount you will automatically receive. The discount is calculated by the length of time you have lived in social housing and also takes into consideration any improvements you have made to the property and those carried out by the local authority/social housing landlord.

The discount will be the lower of  70% of the property value, or the amount listed above. We can’t provide any comment on the discount you will receive in your circumstances.

In the October 2024 budget, the government announced changes to the RTB scheme, notably the size of the discount available to tenants. From 21st November 2024, when the government legislation is intended to come into force, the discount will be capped at a maximum sum depending on the location of the property. In the Yorkshire and Humber area, the discount cap is proposed at £24,000.00. Quite a substantial decrease from the current maximum of £102,400!

With such huge changes to the discounts, if you’re intending to buy your social housing home and are eligible to do so, we would urge you to submit your application form to your landlord (an RTB1 form) before 21st November this year - so, this coming Thursday. Any applications received by that date from eligible tenants will receive the current - higher - discount.

You don’t need to be able to complete your purchase by 21st November or have instructed us to assist by that date, but your social housing landlord must have received your application by then. Once the form is received, the landlord will have 4 weeks (8 weeks if you have been with your current landlord for less than 3 years) in which to confirm your RTB eligibility (they do this by sending you a completed form  RTB2). Once confirmed, the landlord will arrange for a surveyor to visit the property to confirm its value, and this is used as the starting figure before calculating the discount.

You’ll then receive an offer from your landlord within 8 weeks (12 weeks if your property is leasehold) of the issue date of the RTB2.  You’ll see that the process for applying to buy your social housing home isn’t necessarily quick, but so long as your application is with your landlord by 21st November, you will still benefit from the current higher discount rates if your application is approved.

Once you have your offer, you can call one of our Residential Property experts at any of our offices (York, Selby, Malton or Pickering) who will be happy to assist you with the purchase of your home.