Your Right to Buy price in England is the market value your landlord puts on the home, minus your discount. The valuation is fixed at the date you applied, not the date you complete, so a rising market does not move the price against you once your RTB1 form is in.
How the landlord values your home
After accepting your application, your landlord must send a formal offer, called a section 125 notice, within 8 weeks for a freehold house or 12 weeks for a leasehold flat. On gov.uk’s guide to your landlord’s offer, that notice must state the price, how it was worked out, the discount and how that was worked out, what land is included, any known structural problems and, on a flat, service charge estimates for the first five years. The valuation is the open market value, and improvements you paid for yourself, such as a new kitchen, should not increase it.
How the discount interacts with the valuation
The discount rules on gov.uk give 35% on a house after 3 to 5 years as a public sector tenant, rising 1% a year after that, and 50% on a flat rising 2% a year. The discount is capped at whichever is lower of 70% of the value or your regional maximum, which currently runs from £16,000 in most of London to £38,000 in parts of the South East, with £26,000 in the North West for example.
Discount vs cap: the Liverpool example
| Detail
|
Figure
| | — | — | |
Property value
|
£180,000
| |
Years as tenant
|
12
| |
Percentage discount
|
42%
| |
Uncapped discount
|
£75,600
| |
Regional cap (North West)
|
£26,000
| |
Discount applied (lower of the two)
|
£26,000
| |
Final price
|
£154,000
|
Challenging the valuation
If you think the market value is too high, you must write to your landlord within 3 months of receiving the offer and ask for an independent determination. A district valuer from HMRC then visits the property and decides the value, and you get 12 weeks after their decision to accept it or withdraw. You also have 12 weeks to respond to the original offer itself, so raising a challenge early keeps both clocks comfortable, and gov.uk sets out a separate delay procedure if your landlord misses its own deadlines. Two things matter here. First, the district valuer’s figure replaces the landlord’s whether it comes out lower or higher, so go in with evidence, ideally sold prices for similar ex-council homes nearby, not just a feeling. Second, this route challenges the market value only, not the discount percentage or the cap.
Why a valuation cut is worth full value at the cap
Here is the detail most tenants miss. If your percentage discount is already above the regional cap, every pound knocked off the valuation comes straight off your price. In the example above, the tenant’s 42% would exceed the cap at any valuation down to about £62,000, so a successful challenge on the valuation is worth more to this tenant than to anyone whose discount sits comfortably below the cap.
| | Valuation
|
Discount applied
|
Price
| | — | — | — | — | |
Before challenge
|
£180,000
|
£26,000
|
£154,000
| |
After challenge
|
£170,000
|
£26,000
|
£144,000
|
(Net effect: price drops the full £10,000 of the valuation cut.)
The offer notice matters beyond the price, particularly the service charge estimates on flats, which we unpack in our article on Right to Buy flat service charges and the section 125 notice, alongside our wider guide to Right to Buy in 2026. If your circumstances involve buying with family or under a related scheme, our guide to right to acquire and the preserved right to buy covers where the rules differ. Once you accept the offer, the purchase runs like any other conveyancing transaction, so it is worth taking a moment to compare conveyancing quotes for your Right to Buy purchase rather than defaulting to the first firm you find.
FAQs
Can I challenge the district valuer's decision if I still disagree?
No. The district valuer's figure is final for the Right to Buy process itself, and your only options are to accept it or withdraw from the purchase within the 12-week window.
What can I do if my landlord misses its deadline for the section 125 offer?
You can serve a formal initial notice of delay, which gives your landlord a further month to act, and if they still fail to respond you can escalate to an operative notice of delay. From that point, the rent you pay counts towards both your rent and your eventual purchase price, though you cannot claim damages for the delay itself.
