Right to Buy in London: the discount is £16,000, not £136,400
The London cap fell by around £120,000 in November 2024. Most of what is published still quotes the old figure.
If you have looked up Right to Buy in the last year and come away with a figure over a hundred thousand pounds, the page you read was out of date. The London cash cap changed on 21 November 2024, and it did not change by a little.
Section 21 has gone. What that changes for renters in London
No-fault eviction ended on 1 May 2026. Most of the advice still online was written before that date and is now wrong.
How the discount is actually calculated
Two limits apply and you get whichever is lower. The first is a percentage of the property’s value: 35% for a house at three to five years of public sector tenancy, rising by one percentage point for each further year; 50% for a flat on the same starting period, rising by two points a year. The second limit is 70% of the value, whatever the years add up to.
Then the cash cap applies on top. In practice, for most London properties, the cap is what binds. A flat with a long tenancy behind it might qualify for 70% on the percentage rules and still receive £16,000, because that is the ceiling.
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The two boroughs where it is different
Barking and Dagenham and Havering sit outside the London figure, with a cap of £38,000. If you are a tenant in either, the sum is more than twice what it is across the rest of the capital.
What else changed at the same time
A quieter change matters as much for some tenants. The discount is reduced by what the landlord has spent on the property, and the window for that spending was extended from the previous ten to fifteen years to the last thirty. A block that has had a major refurbishment within that period will now reduce the discount where previously the work had aged out of the calculation.
Qualifying, and the five-year rule
The qualifying period is three years as a public sector tenant. They need not be consecutive and need not all have been with the same landlord. Sell within five years of buying and you repay a proportion of the discount, on a sliding scale.
One point on dates. The government has published no uprating of these figures since November 2024, so this is not a "2026/27 rate" that resets each April. It is the figure in force since that date, and it stays until it is changed.
Questions this report answers
+What is the maximum Right to Buy discount in London?
£16,000 for applications made on or after 21 November 2024, except in Barking and Dagenham and Havering, where the cap is £38,000. Before that date the London cap was £136,400.
+How long do I have to be a council tenant to qualify?
Three years as a public sector tenant. The years do not have to be consecutive, and they do not all have to have been with your current landlord.
+What happens if I sell soon after buying?
If you sell within five years you must repay a proportion of the discount, on a sliding scale that reduces each year.
News London Desk
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Section 21 has gone. What that changes for renters in London