Do I Need A Deposit To Buy My Council House

Since the Right to Buy scheme was introduced by Margaret Thatcher`s government in 1980, social housing tenants have had the right to purchase their council house at a discount.

Right to Buy can also apply to people who live in an ex-council home that has since been acquired by a housing association. This is known as the `Preserved Right To Buy`. The core requirements here are that you are a secure tenant, it`s your main home, the property is self-contained and you`ve had a public sector landlord for at least three years at some point in the past.

In 2012, David Cameron`s government introduced significant changes to the Right to Buy initiative, which has led to some confusion about whether or not a deposit is needed if you`re looking to purchase your house under the scheme.

As of April 2017, the maximum discount that you will receive off the cost of your house is £104,900 if you live in London, while you`ll get up to £78,600 off its total value if you live elsewhere in England. (Please Note: This sum increases every April in line with inflation, so this has now been updated as of April 2018 to a maximum of £80,900 - unless you live in London where it is now up to £108,000).

Many mortgage lenders will now accept this discount as a deposit, meaning you won`t necessarily need to save up the lump sum that lenders usually want from buyers.

However, some lenders want you to provide them with a deposit regardless of the discount you`re receiving. The sum of this will vary from lender to lender. We will of course establish and advise on this for you.

As the approach to Right to Buy deposits is so different across the mortgage market, it`s important to seek advice before you agree to take out a mortgage on your council home with a particular lender.

At First Choice Finance, our mortgage advisers are on hand to provide you with advice on taking out a right to buy or right to acquire mortgage and we`ll give you a free quote before you need to decide whether you`d like us to arrange your mortgage for you. Right to acquire mortgages may be available for housing association tenants and still have major discounts albeit usually less than the traditional right to buy discount levels.

That being said a new scheme originally piloted in London has been rolled out in the Midlands for housing association tenants - it is called the Voluntary Right To Buy scheme. It applies to tenants in the East and West Midlands and could enable you to buy your home at the full Right To Buy discount levels.

We have years of experience of helping customers to secure Right To Buy mortgages, so we can help you to find the very best deal to buy your house or flat from our panel of lenders. All quotes are provided for free, all enquiries are confidential and you will get all the facts and figures before you decide to buy your home with a right to buy mortgage or not. Call our UK team on freephone 0800 298 3000 or complete our short on line enquiry form and we will get cracking on your mortgage solution.