Council buyback schemes London (CHAP) - insight/experiences?

Jennifer83

Hello

Wondering if anyone has any knowledge about how funding for the Mayor of London's Council Homes Acquistion Programme works (https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/housing-and-land/increasing-housing-supply/council-homes-acquisition-programme)

I am looking to sell but not immediately...maybe next 12-15 months. I live in an ex-council flat (has been 'ex' since before I bought it and at least 15 years so I don't NEED to offer it back to council). But my council have got funding for buybacks under the above scheme and as far as I understand, this could be a good and low stress way to sell at roughly the market value.

The council buybacks team have been v helpful with my queries. When I asked if they knew if they  would be continuing with buyback beyond this financial year, they said they wouldn't know till Mar/Apr 25.
I can see that they won't know their levels of funding but reading press releases etc that say the Greater London Authority want to buy back 10,000 homes in the next 10 years, I was thinking it's safe-ish to asume it would continue. Is that naive? (eg https://gla.moderngov.co.uk/documents/b29173/Appendix 2 - Written Answers Thursday 07-Dec-2023 10.00 London Assembly Plenary.pdf?T=9)

Also if anyone has experienced any drawbacks to selling to their London council rather than on the open market, would be very grateful to hear any wisdom.

Thanks very much

p.s. If this is helpful for anyone else to know - I asked the council if effectively I shouldn't bother renewing my high 80s lease if planning to sell back, given they are the leaseholder. They said they base the price on a surveyor's valuation which would take into account length of lease so even though it seems even more arbitrary than it generally does to extend it, I probably will. (although yes, they probably would say that!)