Over the past two years, as the Renters’ Rights Act made its way from an election pledge to active implementation, and as of 1st May 2026, quite a lot about how renting will work is set to change.
The biggest changes are hopefully not surprises by this point, and many landlords have already checked their existing tenancies and are either ensuring compliance, working with agencies to help them become compliant or are making plans to sell up.
A landlord estate agent can help in this case, whether you plan to sell the house and tenants to another landlord or help you navigate the new laws surrounding evicting tenants.
However, if an election pledge in Scotland is not only met but is adopted in the rest of the United Kingdom, selling a house could itself change, with private renters getting the right of first refusal to buy the house they rent.
What would this mean? Is it likely to happen and affect landlords? And what are the unintended side effects a scheme such as this could have?
What Is The Right Of First Refusal?
As reported by Landlord Today, the Scottish National Party had pledged to introduce a right of first refusal for private renters, but what does this actually mean?
A right of first refusal, at its broadest definition, is a right bound into a contract which gives the holder of the contract the first option to buy or sell an asset on specific terms.
In the context of housing, the right of first refusal is the right of a leaseholder to buy the freehold or superior leasehold of the flat they are in. This is in place to stop landlords from evicting dozens, if not hundreds of people, by selling the building or its land to a third party without warning.
The SNP’s idea of extending this into the rental sector is to grant renters an exclusivity period to buy the property at a “fair market rate”, which is just as nebulous a term here as in the Renters’ Rights Act.
Renters can then either choose to buy at the fair market rate or decline, and the house goes onto the market.
Is This Right Of First Refusal Likely To Happen?
There are several caveats to this pledge. It is an election pledge, so there is no guarantee of when, how or even if it will become law in Scotland.
As well as this, due to the devolved government, even if the right of first refusal were entered into Scottish law, there is no certainty that it would be implemented across the rest of the UK.
The question of whether many renters would be able to take advantage of the system is one that would need to be answered with a much more robust proposal, as if a renter cannot afford to save for a deposit, a period of exclusivity would not necessarily help them get the money in time.
The SNP have also proposed a “First Homes Fund” in the same manifesto, which would part-fund their deposit, but whether that would be enough remains to be seen.
