Housing associations sell 25,000 social homes

Housing associations in England have sold 25,000 social and affordable homes to private buyers who do not live in them since 2018/19.

The pace has accelerated, with 5,250 homes sold in 2024/25, the highest annual figure on record and 89% more than two years earlier.

The Local Councils Network (LCN), which obtained the figures through Freedom of Information requests to the Regulator of Social Housing, says nearly all the properties were sold at full market price.

These sales are separate from homes bought by tenants through Right to Acquire or Right to Buy.

Councils seek protection

LCN’s social housing spokesperson, Cllr Paul Harvey, said: “With 1.34 million households on social housing waiting lists and temporary accommodation numbers at a record high, every home lost results in more misery for people needing high-quality, secure housing and extra expense for the public sector.

“It cannot be right that some housing associations are selling homes in the parts of the country where they’re most needed and failing to replace them with homes nearby that are equally affordable.”

He added: “It would be a disaster if the biggest social housing building programme in a generation was undermined by the loss of existing social homes.

“We’re calling on the government to ensure public funding for new social housing goes only to those social landlords which manage disposals responsibly, so the new homes being built aren’t cancelled out by the ones being lost.”

Social housing replacements

LCN wants the government to use the Social Housing Bill to give councils and other registered providers a statutory right of first refusal when housing association properties are sold.

It is also calling for longer notice periods, better information before a sale and a rescue fund to help councils and housing associations buy homes considered at risk.

The network wants grant recovered from the sale of a social rent home to be reinvested in a replacement social rent property in the same area.

Regulator figures cited by LCN show housing associations recorded a net gain of 2,864 social rent homes in 2024/25, around 7% of their total net gain across all tenures.

Associations defend sales

National Housing Federation director of policy and research, Alistair Smyth, said housing associations sometimes sell properties so the proceeds can be reinvested in existing homes and new development.

He said associations spent a record £9.7bn on repairs and maintenance last year and had built 333,165 new homes since 2018/19, including 40,651 for social rent.

Mr Smyth also said the number of social homes owned by housing associations had continued to grow in recent years.

Starts on new social rent homes had increased by 57% in one year, according to the federation.