The Yo-yo Home files: These are the Right to Buy properties councils have lost millions on buying back

Star Road, in Isleworth, is the sort of semi-suburban street found all over the southern outskirts of London. It twists and turns, a mix of semi-detached houses, terraces and new build flats. There’s a primary school at the end. Somewhere on this street, though, somebody got rich, and the council paid the bill.

In 2016, they bought their council property under Right to Buy for the discounted price of £272,662. Hounslow Council had no choice, under law, but to sell it. The now ex-tenant then doubled their money by turning it into a Yo-yo Home.

When they came to sell it six years later, in 2023, there was a willing buyer: Hounslow Council. They were willing to pay the market value, and crucially – because the seller had waited more than five years – they could not ask for any of the discount back. The seller received £575,000.

In other words, after that six years, the council had ended up with the same property it owned before, but was out of pocket to the tune of £302,338.

Hounslow Council told Big Issue that the property was purchased to support its refugee resettlement programme, as it had identified a need for larger family homes.

Big Issue has plenty of examples of Yo-yo Homes just like this – and we’re going to share them with you.

The Yo-yo Homes files

Last week, Big Issue dropped an investigation exposing the existence of Yo-yo Homes. You can read it here. We revealed councils losing millions buying back homes they had previously sold under Right to Buy, without the option to reclaim any of the discount.

It sparked a reaction. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said his party would give councils the power to end Right to Buy, while readers reacted by calling for Right to Buy to be abolished entirely. News outlets from the Independent to the Sheffield Tribune picked it up.

Today, we’re dropping the full Yo-yo Homes files, sharing with you what we’ve uncovered so far.

It totals 125 homes, with councils losing £15 million. This is just the beginning – taken from a select number of councils who provided data to us initially.

Here they are:

Sellers making their money back four times over from the council

One home, a semi-detached property next to a church in Lowestoft, east Suffolk, was sold under Right to Buy in the 2017/18 financial year for £42,250. In May 2023, over five years later, East Suffolk Council repurchased it for £90,000 – more than double what it had sold it for.

In Stockport, some sellers are making more than four times their money back. One property, bought under Right to Buy in 2016 for £32,300, was sold back to the council in 2023 for £135,000 – a profit of £102,700 in just over six years. Another was purchased under Right to Buy in 2016 for £23,400 before being sold back to the council in 2021 for £105,000.

There are also some examples of councils finding value: Blackpool – through Blackpool Coastal Housing – sold one home in 2017 for £45,000, but managed to buy it back in 2024 for £47,650, losing just £2,750 – or a less than 1% annual loss.

Ed Davey told Big Issue: “We’d give power back to local authorities who know their community best – giving them the power to end Right to Buy in their areas. Where council homes are sold we want to see councils retain the proceeds – provided they are reinvested back into social housing.” Davey added that the government’s plans to build social homes “seem entirely focused on giving private housebuilders a free range”.

All of our examples of Yo-yo Home transactions take place after Scotland and Wales abolished Right to Buy, in 2016 and 2019 respectively.

The homes are now being used for a number of purposes as councils battle homelessness and a housing crisis made worse by Right to Buy. Local authorities told us they had bought back Yo-yo Homes for temporary accommodation, social housing, places for care leavers to live and refugee resettlement. 

We’re defining a Yo-yo Home as a property sold under Right to Buy then purchased back by the council between five and 10 years later. Within 10 years, the council has the right of first refusal. But after five years, government rules mean they cannot ask for any of the discount back, so stand to lose out while former tenants gain. It is in this gap that the Yo-yo Homes exist.

This is happening to councils in dire financial straits. The government agreed to give Swindon Borough Council £14.7m in exceptional financial support this year, such was the bleak state of their books. The government also allowed Swindon council to sell assets including property to finance day-to-day spending – something not normally allowed, breaking down the ‘ring fence’ around money used for housing.

Yet those running Swindon were powerless to stop money being made as the council bought back homes it had been forced to sell a few short years previously.

The council lost £2.5m on Yo-yo Homes since 2020 – money it has lost buying up homes it owned less than a decade previously. This year, it put its council tax up by the maximum 4.9%.

At the same time it has been buying up Yo-yo Homes, with sellers pocketing the difference, Swindon Borough Council has also put two industrial estates up for sale for £16m – forgoing £1.1m in annual rent to service short-term debt.

Martin Wicks, a council tenant in Swindon who leads the Labour Campaign for Council Housing, said: “It’s bloody infuriating isn’t it? It’s damned infuriating because they gave away a locally-owned asset on the cheap and they’re buying it at a market rate. On the other hand, given the cost of building today it’s understandable.”

“I’m not denouncing them doing it, they need more stock – but if the government had bloody well ended the Right to Buy then they wouldn’t be spending that money on having to buy them back.”

Swindon Borough Council told Big Issue: “The purchases were carefully considered and were chosen as part of a wider initiative to provide homes for families in urgent need of accommodation.

“We would welcome any reforms to extend the Right to Buy discount period because, as these cases demonstrate, we would have been able to buy back these homes for considerably less money.”

Read more of our investigation into Yo-yo Homes:

• The ‘Yo-yo Homes’, revealed: How ex-council tenants make over £200k selling homes back to councils
• Yo-yo Homes ‘indefensible’ and highlight broken system, MPs say after Big Issue’s Right to Buy exposé
• What are Yo-yo Homes? The former council houses making ex-tenants rich

Labour’s reforms may not stop this happening

Those who buy homes under Right to Buy are luckier than other schemes – which explicitly prevent Yo-yo Homes happening.

Anybody buying a property under the government’s First Homes scheme must pass the discount on when they sell. Yet, for Right to Buy, the government has rejected this idea. It says “the complexity of the proposition is likely to outweigh any benefits” and “would likely also require a new mortgage product.” It argued that, given its reduction of Right to Buy discounts, this could “create a small sub-market of homes with small discounts that would do little for affordability.”

Our findings reveal around a third of the Yo-yo Homes have been repurchased since Labour came back into power, with a loss of £5.1m.

Mayors want Westminster to go further. Both Andy Burnham and Sadiq Khan have called for councils to be given the ability to suspend Right to Buy sales.

The Labour government is firmly committed to Right to Buy, but has also embarked on a major series of reforms. It has acknowledged the existence of “profiteering” on former Right to Buy homes. It has already reduced the discounts on offer, limiting the losses councils make when buying back homes. It also plans to increase the deadline for discounts being paid back from five to 10 years – a measure it says is an alternative to discounts being passed on when homes are re-sold.

At present the further reforms remain just plans, with the housing department telling us they will be brought in when parliamentary time allows.

Experts also say Yo-yo Homes could continue being flipped for years to come, despite the reforms, with properties continuing to be sold. The government confirmed the repayment threshold extension will only apply to newly-sold homes, when it comes into force.

Why are councils buying Yo-yo Homes?

With their hands tied over Right to Buy sales, what is the alternative for councils? Homelessness is expensive – in London alone, councils are spending £5.5m a day on temporary accommodation, up from £4.2m a day the previous year. Often this temporary accommodation comes from councils paying private landlords, rather than through housing they own directly. In the long – and even short – term, councils buying properties directly can therefore be cheaper than forking out to private landlords.

Applications for buy-back schemes have become so popular in some London boroughs that councils have had to suspend them. Councils offer chain-free cash purchases at market prices – something very few buyers can offer.

As well as their own cash, councils use money like the Local Authority Housing Fund – a £1.2 billion pot earmarked for homes for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees being resettled – and funding from Homes England. In London, Sadiq Khan’s Council Homes Acquisition Programme gives councils funding to buy properties.

For St Leger Homes, which manages Doncaster Council’s stock, homes are being repurchased to meet an “urgent housing need”.

St Leger Homes chief executive Chris Margrave told Big Issue: “These purchases form part of a wider acquisitions strategy, funded through the housing capital programme, and complement our new build programme. 

“The recent government reforms to the Right to Buy scheme, including the extension of the discount repayment period, will help reduce financial losses and support long-term housing sustainability.”

Hounslow Council told Big Issue: “The council repurchases homes through its buyback programme to provide social housing and meet its statutory obligations under homelessness legislation. 

“The council has no discretion to refuse a Right to Buy sale when the tenant meets the eligibility criteria, and it cannot take potential financial losses into account when repurchasing former Right To Buy properties.”

A spokesperson for Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, told Big Issue: “The mayor has consistently called for Right to Buy reform and welcomes the steps the government has taken to secure and support council housing delivery in the capital. This includes introducing greater restrictions on Right to Buy, such as exempting new social homes from Right to Buy for 35 years and reducing Right to Buy discounts.

“As part of his commitment to increasing council housing delivery, Sadiq has pledged to deliver 40,000 new council homes in our city by 2030 and in 2024-25, London saw the highest number of council homes completed since City Hall records began, with 3,690 new homes delivered.

“The mayor has also welcomed the announcement of a £11.7bn settlement for London under the Social and Affordable Homes Programme 2026–36. This significant settlement follows additional policy measures announced by the government, such as over £1bn investment in remediation and £2.5bn in low-interest loans for social housing providers – all of which will strengthen council finances and help deliver the homes Londoners urgently need as we build a better, fairer, and more prosperous city for everyone.”

Know more about this story? Email Big Issue senior reporter Greg Barradale at greg.barradale@bigissue.com.

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