Right to Buy Mortgages: detailed guide

A Right to Buy mortgage is a specialist residential mortgage that lets an eligible council tenant in England, or a housing association tenant with the Preserved Right to Buy, buy the home they rent under the government's Right to Buy scheme, often using the statutory discount as part or all of the deposit. Right to Buy has ended in Wales and Scotland.

Several UK banks and building societies lend on Right to Buy, including high street lenders and specialist providers, each with its own limit against market value. Published examples, each one lender's rule checked in September 2026 that can change: Atom bank lends up to 95% of full market value (90% for flats and self-employed applicants); Skipton Building Society lends up to 100% of the discounted price with the loan-to-value restricted to 90% of open market value; and Tipton and Coseley Building Society lends the lower of 100% of the discounted price or 75% of open market value. Some lenders do not lend on Right to Buy, so availability depends on the lender, the property type, your credit profile and affordability, and not every lender supports every Right to Buy scenario.

You may be able to borrow more than the discounted purchase price where affordability allows and the lender permits additional borrowing. Lenders assess the extra against your income and outgoings and against their loan-to-value limit, measured on the property's market value.

It can, for a time. In England, if you sell within five years of buying under Right to Buy you repay some or all of the discount, and if you sell within 10 years you must first offer the home to your former landlord or another social landlord in the area. The discount repayment is a charge on the home and the first refusal condition is entered on the register of title, so a later lender's solicitor checks both. During the five years, new borrowing ranks ahead of the discount charge only with your former landlord's consent, which it must give for approved purposes such as repaying the existing mortgage or paying for works to the home, so borrowing more for other reasons can be harder. After these periods, lenders assess the property's condition, construction and marketability in the usual way.

In England, lenders that accept Right to Buy usually let the discount count towards the deposit, because it is equity in the property from completion. Each lender still caps the loan against the market value, and the caps vary between lenders, so a small discount can leave you needing cash of your own. For applications made on or after 21 November 2024 the maximum discount is the lower of 70% of the value and a regional maximum of £16,000 to £38,000, and some or all of the discount is repayable if you sell within five years, worked out on the value of the home when you sell. Right to Buy has ended in Wales and Scotland.