Yo-yo Homes revealed by Big Issue so far include one property in Hackney, sold by the council in 2014 under Right to Buy for £95,050. In 2021, the council bought it back for £365,000, making a loss of £269,0950.
In another example, a property in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, was bought by an ex-tenant under Right to Buy in 2016 for £16,000. It was then sold back to Cheshire West and Chester Council in 2024 for £170,000 – more than 10 times the original price.
Our investigation has uncovered more than 100 examples of homes repurchased by councils between five and 10 years after the initial Right to Buy sale, when homes up for sale must be offered back to local authorities at market price, but sellers do not have to repay any of the discount.
Reacting to the story, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said his party would give councils the power to end Right to Buy. He added that Conservative governments had sold off council houses without replacing the homes, while Labour’s plans “seem entirely focused on giving private housebuilders a free range [sic]”.
Davey told Big Issue: “We’d also 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.”
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The profits on individual homes sit in a wider context of councils in effect trying to reverse Right to Buy. While they have not been able to purchase as many homes as they have sold under the policy, more than half of the properties purchased by councils are ex-Right to Buy homes.
Some local authorities, including Cornwall, Brighton and Hove, and Newham, have managed to buy more homes than they sold in the past five years.
Labour has already reduced the maximum discounts on offer throught the Right to Buy scheme – from £136,000 to £38,000 – and is planning further reforms, including increasing the time after sale when a discount should be repaid from five to 10 years.
Siân Berry, the Green MP for Brighton Pavillion, said she believed Right to Buy should be abolished. “Right to Buy should end, it was a mistake that has led to the loss of many, many thousands of council homes. Every discount granted is money that must be made up, with vast interest, if and when these homes come back on the market to be bought back,” Berry told Big Issue.
But she added that councils were not necessarily wasting money by buying back homes. “Even starting from this situation where so much harm has been done by previous governments, buying and buying back homes for new council housing supply is better value than continuing to line landlords’ pockets,” said Berry.
The number of homeless children in England has reached record levels, with 172,000 living in temporary accommodation, new figures revealed this week.
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This crisis is pushing council budgets to bursting point, with councils in London warning some of the city’s boroughs could face bankruptcy after exceeding homelessness budgets by 60%.
Many of the Yo-yo Homes repurchased by councils are bought to use as temporary accommodation, as an alternative to paying private landlords.
Jeremy Corbyn, the MP for Islington North and co-leader of Your Party, told Big Issue the issues dated back to Margaret Thatcher.
“Right to Buy was the single most disastrous policy of Thatcher’s reign. Social housing was decimated, and private landlords reaped the rewards. Thatcherism is the cause – not the solution – to the housing crisis. Housing isn’t a commodity. It’s a human right. That’s why I have always campaigned to end Right to Buy, to bring in rent controls, and to build a massive council-house building programme,” said Corbyn.
In another Yo-yo Home example uncovered by Big Issue, Swindon Council sold one home under Right to Buy in 2020 for £108,500. They bought it back in 2025 for £240,000, losing £131,500 in five years.
Yet experts warned Labour’s planned reforms to Right to Buy did not go far enough.
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“Councils are trapped in a costly cycle – selling off homes at a substantial discount only to buy them back later, often for several times the sales price. We welcome the government’s proposed reforms to Right to Buy, though they could go further and make permanent the discounts applied when tenants purchase their homes through Right to Buy,” said Joseph Elliot, lead analyst at Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
“This means any future buyers would also receive this discount, including social landlords and councils. Preventing former social homes from being used as private rentals would also stop us losing more of the social housing we desperately need.”
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