These schemes span very different circumstances, buying your council home, adapting a property for a disability, or covering mortgage interest on a means-tested benefit, but they share one thing worth checking on every single one: whether what you're being offered is a grant, a discount, or a loan that comes back later.
Before you start: eligibility and availability vary
These schemes share one piece of important context: none of them is universally available. Eligibility depends on your circumstances, where you live, and the property you're looking at. Right to Buy is available to qualifying social housing tenants in England but was abolished in Scotland in 2016 and in Wales in 2019. Support for Mortgage Interest requires you to be receiving a qualifying means-tested benefit. Disabled Facilities Grants are administered by local councils and available budgets differ by area. The first step with any scheme is confirming whether you're eligible at all — and whether it's still open in your nation.
Resources by purpose
Buying your social housing home
Right to Buy (England) and Right to Acquire give qualifying tenants the right to purchase their council or housing association home at a discount. The size of the discount, how lenders treat it, and the government's reform announcements are covered in our Right to Buy and Right to Acquire guide. The key question to understand upfront is whether a discount counts as a genuine deposit in a lender's eyes — and the answer isn't always yes.
Adapting your home
The Disabled Facilities Grant is a means-tested statutory entitlement to help fund adaptations to an existing property — from stairlifts and level-access showers to widened doorways. It carries a 10-year land charge condition that most recipients aren't told about at the outset. Support for Mortgage Interest is a loan, not a grant: it covers the interest element of a mortgage for people on qualifying benefits, and must be repaid when the property is sold. Both are covered in our Disabled Facilities Grants and Support for Mortgage Interest guide.
Buying as a shared owner
Shared Ownership lets you buy a percentage share in a property and pay rent on the remainder. Staircasing is the process of buying additional shares over time. The most common misunderstanding: you staircase at market value, not at the price you originally paid. Our Shared Ownership Staircasing guide explains both the standard route and the simultaneous staircasing option that some housing associations now offer.
Help to Buy equity loan repayment
For the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme in England, applications closed on 31 October 2022. Eligible transactions were generally required to complete by 31 March 2023, with limited extensions available through homebuilders. Wales operates a separate Help to Buy – Wales scheme with different eligibility rules and application deadlines — check the current Welsh Government Help to Buy – Wales guidance before applying. Existing borrowers in England still hold equity loans that will eventually need to be repaid. The amount you repay is a percentage of the property's current market value at the time — not the original loan amount. Our Help to Buy Equity Loan Repayment guide explains the compounding interest formula and the repayment options available. Source: GOV.UK — Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme data to 31 March 2023.
Frequently asked questions
Are these schemes available across the whole UK?
Mostly these guides focus on England, since Scotland and Wales operate their own distinct versions or have abolished certain schemes entirely, Scotland ended Right to Buy in 2016 and Wales in 2019, for example. Always check the specific rules for your nation.
How do I know if a scheme is a grant or a loan?
Check whether repayment is ever required, and under what circumstances. A genuine grant, like the core Disabled Facilities Grant amount, is never repaid in the ordinary course, though some carry conditions like a land charge. A loan, like Support for Mortgage Interest, is always repaid eventually, typically when the property is sold.
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