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Who can apply for Right to Acquire?

The Right to Acquire scheme helps tenants in England and Wales buy their housing association home at a discount. You can apply to buy your home through Right to Acquire if you’ve been a public sector tenant for five years.

You are a public sector tenant if you have lived in properties provided by the council, a housing association or the armed services. There are many other public sector landlords accepted for Right to Acquire.

You can make a ‘joint application’ for Right to Acquire with another person who shares your tenancy or up to three members of your family. They must have lived with you for the past 12 months.

The property you live in

To qualify for the Right to Acquire scheme, your property must either have been:

• built or bought by a housing association with public funds from 1 April 2023 onwards
• transferred from a local council to a housing association after 1 April 2023

You can only buy your home through the scheme if your landlord is a housing association.

The home you want to buy must also be a self-contained property and be your only or main home. Self-contained means you don’t share parts of your property with others - such as a living room or bathroom.

Who doesn't qualify for Right to Acquire?

You can't buy your home through the Right to Acquire scheme if:

• you are being made bankrupt
• a court has ordered you to leave your home
• you are a council tenant – you may be able to get discounts on buying your home through the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme

• Buying your council home - the Right to Buy scheme

Types of property that don't qualify for Right to Acquire

Not all properties can be bought under the Right to Acquire scheme. These include:

• housing provided for people aged 60 or over
• housing provided to people who have special needs or who are physically disabled
• housing that is provided as part of your job
• property your landlord has published its intention to demolish within seven years
• property your landlord has served a notice to demolish within two years

There are other types of property that don’t qualify for Right to Acquire. Your landlord will tell you if your home qualifies when you apply to buy it.

• Applying to buy your home through Right to Acquire

Right to Acquire discounts

You can get a discount of between £9,000 and £16,000 on the price of your property. The amount of discount you will get depends on where you live.

If you have previously had a discount to help you buy a public sector home, this may be taken off your Right to Acquire discount.

• Download a table of Right to Acquire discounts by location (PDF, 89K)

• Help with PDF files

How your Right to Acquire home's price is calculated

Your landlord gets an ‘open market valuation’ to work out the price of your home. An open market valuation is the price a property is valued at when it is sold, eg through an estate agent.

For example, if your home was valued at £100,000 and the discount for your area was £10,000, you could buy your home for £90,000.

Mortgages and other costs of buying through Right to Acquire

Unless you can buy your home with cash, you'll need to borrow money through a mortgage.

Make sure you will have enough money each month to pay your mortgage and other bills like Council Tax. If you buy a flat, you’ll probably also have to pay a ‘service charge’ towards the upkeep of the whole building and repairs. If major repairs are needed, eg a new roof, the service charge could be thousands of pounds each year.

If you don’t pay your mortgage, your mortgage lender can take you to court and you could lose your home. And because you are no longer a tenant, the council doesn’t have to find you another home.

If you can't afford to buy your home through Right to Acquire, you may still be able to buy a share of it through Social HomeBuy.

• Social HomeBuy - how it works

• Mortgages (money, tax and benefits section)

• Buying your home

Selling your home

If you sell your home in the future you may have to repay some, or all, of the discount. The amount you'll have to pay back depends on how soon you want to sell your home.

• Selling your housing association home

How to apply for Right to Acquire

You have to go through a set process to buy your home under the Right to Acquire scheme. Your landlord has an application form for the scheme, which you will need to complete.

• Applying to buy your home through Right to Acquire

Useful contacts

• Home and community contacts