A We-Buy-Homes buy back option gives you the right to buy back your property in the future. Obviously you must be renting back your home from us to be able to do this.

We normally set the option to run between 2 and 5 years, but you may have different requirements. The 2 year lower time limit is so that – even though we may initially buy for cash – we can get a competitive mortgage that may have a 2 year early redemption penalty. This frees up our cash so we can help other people in the future.

A typical option would have a repurchase price on the property of 15% above the price that we pay.

Consider as an example a property worth £140,000.

You decide to sell us your house for £100,000. In this example this is enough money to clear your mortgage and debts. We rent the house back to you at an agreed – low – monthly rental figure.

Now suppose that you exercise your option after 5 years and that house prices have gone up on average by 5% per year, compounded.

Your property now has a market value of nearly £179,000, but you still have the right to buy the property back at £115,000.

Although in theory you lost £40,000 of equity when you sold below market value, in this case when you buy your property back, you have recovered your lost equity and acquired an additional £24,000.

If the property market crashes, then you are not obliged to buy the property back.