Buying your council property

Who can apply to buy their council home under the Right to Buy scheme, how to apply and what happens next.

To apply to buy your council home, you must have spent a total of at least three years as a tenant of one or more of the following:

  • a Leeds City Council or other council-owned property
  • a housing association property
  • armed forces accommodation

If you have had any breaks as a tenant, you can still include previous tenancies in this three year total.

You may not be able to buy your council home if:

  • your property has been specially adapted for elderly or disabled tenants - check to find out if you live in one of these properties by emailing
    house.sales@leeds.gov.uk
  • you are in breach of any part of your
    tenancy agreement External link
  • you have an un-discharged bankruptcy
  • you are subject to a court order

Before you apply, we recommend that you seek legal advice, and contact the
Government’s Right to Buy service External link if you need more information.

Valuation of your property and the Right to Buy discount

When we receive your application, we will assess the condition of your property and value it from this date. We will not take any improvements you have made into account when making the valuation.

You may receive a discount on the value of your property. The amount will depend on the type of property and the total time you've been a tenant at council, housing association and armed forces properties.

The maximum amount of discount any tenant can receive is £102,400.

We cannot sell a property below the value of the costs we have spent on purchasing, building, improving and repairing the property in the past 10 years for properties built before April 2012 (15 years for properties built after this date).

This may mean you will receive less discount than your years of tenancy entitle you to, or you may not receive any discount at all.

  • You may be entitled to a discount of 35% on the value of your property up until the fifth year of your tenancy.

    From the sixth year of your tenancy, this discount will increase by 1% for every additional year you are a tenant, up to a maximum of 40 years and 70% discount.

    Click to expand Discount for houses and bungalows

  • Buying a flat or maisonette

    Flats and maisonettes are sold on a long lease. Owning your flat or maisonette as a leaseholder gives you the right to live there during the period of your lease and sell it when you wish. However, the ground the property sits on and the building still belong to the council. Lease periods are usually 125 years, but can be shorter.

    As well as their mortgage, leaseholders are responsible for paying:

    • an annual service charge to the council for repairs to communal areas - this includes repairs to guttering, lifts, roofs, shared walkways and stairwells
    • a share of the cost of any major repair or improvement works to the building containing their flat or maisonette – this includes things like re-roofing, new gutters, and replacement of lifts

    We strongly recommend that you take legal advice before buying your flat or maisonette.
    Find out more about leaseholder responsibilities.

    Discount for flats and maisonettes

    You may be entitled to a discount of 50% on the value of your property up until the fifth year of your tenancy.

    From the sixth year of your tenancy, this discount will increase by 2% for every additional year you are a tenant, up to a maximum of 15 years and 70% discount.

    Click to expand Discount for flats and maisonettes

Selling your ex-council property

If you sell within 5 years of buying your home from the Council, you will have to repay part, all, or in some cases more than the discount you received. The amount you repay depends on the value of your home when you sell it. If you have improved your home since buying it, we will take this into account.

If you are thinking about selling your ex-council house back to the council, please email us at
house.sales@leeds.gov.uk.

Reporting repairs

Until you have bought your home, we still have a duty as your landlord to carry out repairs to the property. However, if a repair you have asked for is expensive, or would normally happen as part of a repairs programme, it may not be possible to do the work whilst you are applying to buy your home. This is because it may affect the value of the property.

You may therefore need to consider if you wish to buy your home in its present condition, or wait for the necessary work to take place before applying.

Find out how to contact us to discuss a repair issue.

Once you have bought your home, we will no longer be responsible for carrying out repairs to your property. If other council properties have improvement works, your property will not receive these once you own your home, as any major work would affect the value of the property.

How to apply to buy your home

Complete or print and return the
Right to Buy application form to:

Home Ownership Team 3rd Floor West (South Office) Civic Hall Calverley Street Leeds LS1 1UR

You can also contact the Home Ownership Team by phone on 0113 378 5685 for further support.

What happens next

After we receive your application, we will contact you within four weeks to let you know whether your application has been successful.

If you have applied to buy a house or bungalow, we will let you know the purchase price within 12 weeks.

If you are applying to buy a flat or maisonette, we will give you details of the purchase price and service charges within 16 weeks.