The House Sales Scheme in Northern Ireland

The House Sales Scheme is Northern Ireland's version of the right to buy: it gives eligible tenants of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and registered housing associations the right to buy the home they rent, at a discount¹. A secure tenant with at least five years of tenancy gets a 20 per cent discount off the market value, and the discount rises by two per cent for each further year of tenancy, up to a maximum of 60 per cent or £24,000, whichever is the lower¹. If buying outright is not affordable, the scheme also allows a tenant to buy a share of the home from 25 per cent upwards and pay rent on the rest³.

The scheme is the social-landlord route into home ownership in Northern Ireland, offered by the Housing Executive and registered housing associations². It sits alongside other low-cost home ownership options in Northern Ireland, including the Co-ownership scheme for people who cannot afford to buy a home outright⁴. For context, the average house price in Northern Ireland was £202,000 in Quarter 2 (April to June) 2026, up 9.2 per cent (£17,000) from the same quarter a year earlier⁵, so the discount can represent a substantial amount of money.

What the House Sales Scheme offers

The House Sales Scheme exists to give social tenants in Northern Ireland a route into owning their own home. Under the scheme, eligible tenants of the Housing Executive have the right to buy their homes at a discount³, and the scheme is also offered by registered housing associations as one of the social landlords providing low-cost home ownership². Tenants of housing associations may likewise be entitled to a discount when buying the home they rent⁶.

The scheme is Northern Ireland's counterpart to the Right to Buy scheme that operates in Great Britain, but the rules are set separately and the numbers differ. Under Right to Buy in England, a tenant gets a 35 per cent discount after three years of public sector tenancy, rising by one per cent a year after five years to a maximum of 70 per cent, or a cash cap of £16,000 to £38,000 depending on region, whichever is lower⁷. The House Sales Scheme instead starts at 20 per cent after five years and caps at 60 per cent or £24,000¹. England also has a separate Right to Shared Ownership scheme, which allows some tenants to buy a share of their rented home on shared ownership terms rather than buying outright⁸, and Rent to Buy is a further English option, with a different scheme in Northern Ireland⁹.

Scotland and Wales have their own low-cost home ownership schemes, which are open to buyers generally rather than being tied to an existing tenancy. Scotland offers shared equity schemes such as the Open Market Shared Equity scheme, which helps eligible buyers on low to moderate incomes purchase a home¹⁰, and the New Supply Shared Equity scheme for new-build homes bought from a council or housing association¹¹. Wales runs Help to Buy Wales, providing an interest-free equity loan for the first five years of up to 20 per cent of the property value¹³. The House Sales Scheme is distinctive because the right attaches to the tenancy itself: the buyer already lives in the property and the discount rewards the length of time they have been a tenant.

Who can buy, including joint buyers and inherited tenancies

The basic requirement is a secure tenancy of the Housing Executive or a registered housing association, and the discount is calculated on the number of years you have been a secure tenant³. The five-year minimum matters because it sets the entry point for the discount: a secure tenant with a minimum of five years receives 20 per cent off the market value¹.

If your tenancy has not run for five full years, you might still be able to buy your home if your partner or parent was previously the tenant¹. This inherited-tenancy rule recognises that households change shape, and it means the scheme is not limited to the person whose name is on the original tenancy agreement. The length of the previous tenancy is what feeds into the discount calculation, since the discount is based on years as a secure tenant³.

Joint buying is also allowed. A maximum of four buyers may apply to jointly buy the property, but at least one of the buyers must be the legal tenant¹. This opens the scheme to households where family members or partners contribute to the purchase, in much the same way as other joint purchases of property, which have their own legal considerations about how ownership is shared. If you are buying with others, the costs of buying a house and the way joint ownership is recorded both need attention, and a declaration of trust can set out each buyer's share where the contributions are unequal.

Rent arrears do not block an application. Your application will not be rejected on the grounds of rent arrears, but it cannot complete until you pay any overdue rent or other money owed by you to the Housing Executive¹. In practice this means arrears delay the purchase rather than preventing it, and clearing them becomes a condition of finishing it.

Homes that cannot be bought under the scheme

Not every social tenancy in Northern Ireland can be bought. You are not eligible if you live in¹:

• sheltered housing
• a property which is part of a group housing scheme
• a single storey or ground floor property, other than a flat, with no more than two bedrooms

These exclusions protect the stock of housing that is designed for particular needs. Sheltered housing and group housing schemes are intended for tenants who need support or specific arrangements, and single-storey, small properties are the kind most suited to older residents or small households, so the landlords keep them outside the scheme. The exclusion of certain ground floor properties other than flats is worth checking carefully if you live in a bungalow or similar home, because the rule turns on both the property type and the number of bedrooms.

If your home falls within one of these categories, the House Sales Scheme is not available for it, and the alternatives are the general low-cost home ownership routes in Northern Ireland, such as the Co-ownership scheme for people who cannot afford to buy outright⁴, or open-market purchase. The broader first-time buyer schemes page sets out what exists in each nation.

The discount: 20% after five years, up to 60% or £24,000

The discount is the heart of the scheme's value to the buyer. A secure tenant with a minimum of five years receives a 20 per cent discount off the market value of the home¹. The discount then increases by two per cent for each additional tenancy year, to a maximum of 60 per cent or £24,000, whichever is the lower¹. The discount is calculated on the number of years you have been a secure tenant, and it can reach the scheme maximum of £24,000³.

The cash cap bites early in Northern Ireland's market. With the average house price in Northern Ireland at £202,000 in Quarter 2 2026⁵, the £24,000 cap is reached well before the 60 per cent percentage limit on an average-priced home, so most long-tenancy buyers will find the £24,000 limit, not the percentage limit, is what caps their discount. The cap was worth roughly 12 per cent of the average price in Quarter 2 2026, and house prices have been rising: the average was £196,000 in Quarter 4 (October to December) 2025¹⁴ and £198,000 in Quarter 1 (January to March) 2026¹⁵, so the real value of the cash cap relative to prices has been falling.

Compared with Right to Buy in England, the House Sales Scheme starts later and caps lower: Right to Buy offers 35 per cent after three years and up to 70 per cent, with a cash cap of £16,000 to £38,000 depending on region⁷. The First Homes scheme in England, a discount scheme for new buyers rather than tenants, requires a minimum discount of 30 per cent, and local areas may require a larger minimum discount of 40 per cent or 50 per cent¹⁶. Each scheme works differently, but the common principle is that a percentage or cash-limited discount is applied to a market value set by a valuation.

Buying part of your home and renting the rest

If you cannot afford to buy the entire property, you can buy a percentage and rent the rest⁴. This is the equity-sharing version of the scheme, and it works on a clear principle: you must buy at least 25 per cent of the property's equity³.

When you buy part of the property, you are the leaseholder and no longer a tenant³. The leaseholder pays reduced rent, calculated on the amount of equity retained by the Housing Executive, and the rent is also reduced to cover maintenance of the property³. So the rent falls both as you buy more equity and because part of it reflects the landlord's continuing maintenance role.

You can increase your equity share in multiples of five per cent at any time, a process known as staircasing³. Each further purchase is priced at the property's market value at the time, so the cost of a further five per cent can go up or down with the market. This mirrors staircasing in other part-ownership schemes across the UK: in the new national model for shared ownership in England, new shared owners can buy additional shares in one per cent increments for up to 15 years, with heavily reduced fees¹⁷, and in shared ownership generally, changes to your home may increase or decrease its market value, which affects the price of buying shares of five per cent or more in the future¹⁸. In Scotland's shared equity schemes the same principle applies: under the New Supply Shared Equity scheme you can usually increase your share all the way to 100 per cent, though a golden share clause can cap you at 80 per cent, and you must increase by at least five per cent in a year¹⁹. In Wales, shared ownership shares are sold at current market value, disregarding improvements the landlord consented to, with the valuation carried out by a RICS qualified valuer²¹.

The part-purchase route suits tenants who want to own but could not raise a mortgage for the full value. The trade-offs are the continuing rent, the service charge if the property is a flat or maisonette, and the fact that you are responsible for repairs regardless of how much equity you buy, all covered in the costs section below.

How the valuation and offer work

The purchase price is built from two numbers: the market value and the discount. An independent valuer will assess the market value of your home¹. The offer you receive is then the market value less the discount your tenancy earns.

If you disagree with the market value the valuer gives you, you can ask for a redetermination by Land & Property Services. Its valuation is final, and it can go up or down¹, so a redetermination is a genuine second look rather than a guaranteed improvement, and the redetermined figure becomes the basis of the price.

You must make your decision about going ahead to buy your home within six weeks of receiving the offer¹. That six-week window is when the practical work happens: arranging the mortgage, instructing a solicitor to handle the conveyancing, and clearing any rent arrears or other money owed to the Housing Executive, since completion cannot happen until those are paid¹. The valuation stage is also where the discount interacts with the market: with Northern Ireland house prices up 9.2 per cent in the year to Quarter 2 2026⁵, the market value, and so the price even after discount, can move noticeably between application and completion.

Valuation practice elsewhere gives a sense of how these figures are put together. In the Help to Buy Wales scheme, a valuer must provide at least three comparable properties and sale prices within the last six months, like for like in type, size and age and within five miles of the property²², and a desktop valuation requires three more comparables with sale prices within the last 12 months if the property's value has changed²³. In Scotland's Mortgage to Rent scheme, the home is valued at its current market value by a professional surveyor appointed by the Scottish Government, and the values are not negotiable, with no appeal process²⁴. The House Sales Scheme's redetermination route is more generous than that, but the finality of the Land & Property Services figure means it should be used thoughtfully.

Selling within ten years: repaying the discount and the buy-back option

The discount comes with strings attached when you sell early. If you sell your home within five years of buying, you must pay back the full discount received¹. The rules on how discounts are repaid on early resale in right-to-buy style schemes work on a percentage basis: the amount of discount to be repaid if you sell within five years of purchase will be a percentage of the resale value of the property, disregarding the value of any improvements⁷. The repayment percentage steps down over time, for example 40 per cent of the discount in the fourth year⁷.

The buy-back rule runs for longer. If you sell within ten years, you must give the Housing Executive the option to buy back the property¹. You cannot sell your property until the Housing Executive confirms that it does not wish to buy the property¹. This right of first refusal is a feature of right-to-buy schemes generally: under Right to Buy in England, if you purchase your home and wish to resell or dispose of it within 10 years, you will be subject to a right of first refusal rule⁷.

Other discount schemes show the same pattern of early-sale conditions. Under the First Homes scheme in England, the amount an independent surveyor values the property for, minus the percentage discount you originally got, is what you can sell for, and you cannot sell for more, though you can choose to sell for less²⁵. In Scotland's shared equity schemes, if you have a 70 per cent share and sell, you get 70 per cent of the selling price and the Scottish Government gets 30 per cent²⁶, and when selling you are responsible for meeting all costs, including those incurred by the administering agent and Scottish Ministers²⁷. The House Sales Scheme's rules are different in mechanics but similar in intent: the discount is meant to help you into a home you keep, not a quick profit on resale.

Costs you take on as an owner or leaseholder

Buying under the scheme changes what you pay for, and the change is bigger than the purchase itself. The leaseholder is responsible for maintenance and repairs, regardless of how much equity they buy³. This applies even at the minimum 25 per cent share, which is a real difference from shared ownership in England, where under the new national model the cost of repairs and maintenance is met by the landlord for the first 10 years after purchase of a new property, with some limits¹⁷.

Rates also become your responsibility. The leaseholder is responsible for paying rates, and should pay rates directly to Land & Property Services (LPS), as the landlord will not collect rates on their behalf³. People on low incomes, including pensioners, may receive a discount in their rates through the Housing Benefit Rate Relief scheme⁶, and if you and your partner are of pension age you can apply for the Housing Benefit and Rate Relief Scheme²⁸. These reliefs are means-tested, and information about you may be shared between the Housing Executive and Land & Property Services for checking claims²⁹.

For flats or maisonettes, the buyer or leaseholder must also pay an annual service charge³. This covers the shared costs of the building and is on top of the reduced rent a part-purchaser pays. A summary of the ongoing obligations:

The purchase itself carries the usual buying costs, and these are the same as for any home purchase: legal costs, registration fees and any stamp duty, alongside the price of your share³⁰. The costs of buying a house page covers these in detail, and Stamp Duty Land Tax in England and Northern Ireland explains the tax position. Mortgage costs also matter: first-time buyer mortgage lending in Northern Ireland ran at an average loan to income ratio of 3.1 times income in 2025³¹, which indicates the income multiples lenders were extending in the region.

If buying proves unaffordable later, other schemes' rules show what help exists elsewhere, though not all of it in Northern Ireland. Scotland's Mortgage to Rent scheme allows a social landlord such as a housing association or local authority to buy your home while you continue to live there as a tenant²⁴. The Warm Home Discount Scheme is not available in Northern Ireland, where separate support is available³².

Where to get help

The Housing Executive itself is the first point of contact for questions about the scheme, the application, the valuation and the offer, and registered housing associations play the same role for their tenants. Land & Property Services handles the redetermination of valuations and collects rates once you have bought¹.

For the money side, free and impartial help is available. nidirect, the Northern Ireland government service, publishes the guidance on the House Sales Scheme and on low-cost home ownership generally¹. MoneyHelper offers free government-backed guidance on mortgages and home buying, and a mortgage broker or independent financial adviser can assess affordability, though advice on which mortgage to take may carry a fee. For rates relief, Land & Property Services and the Housing Benefit Rate Relief scheme are the routes to check⁶. If money problems mean the mortgage becomes unaffordable after buying, getting advice early, including from a debt advice charity, matters more than at any other point, because the home is now yours and so is the risk.