Social landlord housing sales: April 2020 to March 2021

Note that, due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, data on social landlord housing sales were not collected for 2019-20. See the COVID-19 and the production of statistics and social research statement for further information.

Main points

• There were 397 social landlord housing sales in 2020-21. Compared to the peak in sales in 2018-19, this represented a decrease of 50%. This is likely to be due to the ending of the Right to Buy and Right to Acquire Schemes in January 2019 (see report).
• Local authority sales decreased by 75% to 40 dwellings during 2020-21. Sales of registered social landlord (RSL) dwellings were down by 44% to 357 dwellings.
• Since 2008-09, the majority of all social landlord housing sales have been by RSLs accounting for 90% of all social landlord housing sales during 2020-21.
• In 2020-21, only 15% of sales were statutory sales via the Right to Buy or Right to Acquire schemes. This compares with 55% of sales in 2018-19. This may be due to those applying to make use of the Right to Buy and Right to Acquire schemes in 2018-19 ahead of their final abolition for existing stock in January 2019.