Right to Buy mortgages

Right to Buy residential property mortgages let eligible council tenants in England, and some housing association tenants with the Preserved Right to Buy, buy their rented home at a discounted price with a regulated residential mortgage. With lenders that accept it, the discount can count towards the deposit, so a long-term tenant may need little or no traditional cash deposit.

This page explains how Right to Buy and Right to Acquire work, who qualifies, lenders' limits and how the mortgage is assessed, using the rules in England and published lender criteria.

What is Right to Buy and Right to Acquire?

Right to Buy is a government home ownership scheme in England that lets eligible council tenants buy their home at a discount from its market value. It has ended in Wales and Scotland.

Housing association tenants may instead be able to use:

• the Preserved Right to Buy, where their council home was transferred to a housing association while they lived there
• the Right to Acquire, which covers some housing association homes

The schemes differ, but lenders assess the mortgage in a broadly similar way.

Who can use the Right to Buy scheme?

The landlord assesses eligibility, and it must be confirmed before a mortgage application proceeds.

In England the main criteria are:

• You must be a secure council tenant (a public-sector tenant), or a housing association tenant with the Preserved Right to Buy
• You must have held a qualifying tenancy for a minimum period: at least 3 years with a public sector landlord, not necessarily in a row
• The property must be your only or main home
• The property must be self-contained
• Some homes are not covered by the scheme, so the landlord confirms whether yours qualifies

Mortgage lenders also apply their standard affordability, credit and underwriting checks.

How the Right to Buy discount works

The purchase discount is the main feature of Right to Buy: it reduces the price you pay below the open market value.

• For applications made after 21 November 2024, the maximum discount is the lower of 70% of the home's value and a regional maximum of £16,000 to £38,000
• The discount is not paid to you in cash
• Instead, it reduces the purchase price, and lenders count it as equity in the home

Where the lender's cap against market value allows, the discount can act as the entire deposit.

Mortgage lending limits and LTV explained

Lenders offering Right to Buy mortgages typically assess lending as follows:

• You may borrow up to 100% of the discounted purchase price
• Each lender caps the loan-to-value (LTV) against the full market value; published caps checked in September 2026 ranged from 75% to 95%
• The cap limits what the lender lends against the market value, whatever the size of the discount

Example (illustrative): a home in the South West of England, where the maximum discount for applications made after 21 November 2024 is £30,000 (the maximum is lower in most other regions). Market value £200,000; Right to Buy discount £30,000; price after discount £170,000; mortgage required £170,000; effective LTV 85% of market value.

With a lender whose cap is 85% or more of market value, this can mean no cash deposit; with a lender capped at 75%, the maximum loan would be £150,000 and the tenant would need £20,000 of their own.