What is Right to Acquire?
Right to Acquire lets eligible housing association tenants in England buy their home at a discount. It runs along much the same lines as Right to Buy, but the discounts are smaller, somewhere between £9,000 and £16,000 depending on where the property is.
The government sets the discount, and it changes by region rather than by how long you have rented. So a three-year tenant gets exactly the same amount as a twenty-year tenant, which is the opposite of Right to Buy, where extra years push the percentage up.
Who is eligible?
To qualify for Right to Acquire you need at least three years as a public sector tenant, and you have to be a current assured tenant of a housing association. That association must have registered after January 1997, or have used public funding to build or do up the property.
Not every housing association home is covered. The property has to have been built or bought with public money, and some homes in rural areas with fewer than 3,000 residents are left out. Your housing association can tell you whether yours makes the cut.
How does the mortgage work?
Arranging the mortgage for Right to Acquire looks much like Right to Buy. Your discount stands in for the deposit, and lenders judge affordability against the discounted purchase price. Some will lend the full 100% of that discounted figure.
Since the discounts are smaller than Right to Buy, your mortgage tends to be larger next to the value of the home. Your adviser can find the lenders with strong Right to Acquire deals and work out what your monthly payments are likely to be.