Housing statistics: quarterly update, December 2017

Sales of Local Authority Dwellings to Sitting Tenants (Right to Buy)

Most sales of local authority housing to tenants are sales under Right to Buy although a small number cover other sales such as voluntary sales by local authorities to sitting tenants.

In July 2013 the Scottish Government announced that the Right to Buy scheme was to end for all tenants. Immediately following this announcement the number of applications and the number of sales between July and September 2013 both increased (by 39% and 44%, respectively) compared to the previous quarter.

Chart 13: Quarterly local authority sales to sitting tenants, sales and applications

Note: The Right to Buy scheme closed to all new applicants on 31 July 2016, therefore application figures for 2016 Q3 (July - September) relate to applications for the single month of July 2016 only and there are no applications in subsequent quarters. Sales figures can occur in a period later than that in which the application was made.

The Right to Buy scheme subsequently closed to all new applicants on 31 July 2016, therefore there have been no Right to Buy applications made during the last three quarters (October 2016 to June 2017). Throughout the final year of the scheme (the year to end September 2016), there were 9,060 applications made, more than double the 3,890 applications that were made in the previous year to end September 2015. This increase is likely to have been because this was the last chance for social housing tenants with an entitlement to exercise their Right to Buy before the scheme closed.

It can take a period of time for applications to be processed and for sales to be made, and therefore Right to Buy sales are still being recorded. In the latest available quarter, April to June 2017, there were 787 Right to Buy sales, 56% more than the 506 sales in the same quarter in the previous year, however this was 19% less than the 971 sales in the previous quarter, January to March 2017. This drop in the latest quarter suggests that the recent increase in sales may have now peaked and may begin to fall further in future quarters as the number of applications remaining in the system continues to fall.