Tens of millions of pounds will be needed to bring public buildings built using private finance into state hands.
Scores of buildings, such as schools, have been built across Scotland using the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) model where firms construct and maintain buildings for an annual fee.
At the end of the majority of these deals. the facilities are simply handed over to the public bodies using them.
But this is not the case in 11 PFI contracts expiring in the coming years.
Research by the BBC shows these deals contain clauses which mean public bodies will need to pay the PFI provider a fee or market value for the property if they want to take full control of the building when the contract ends.
None of the 11 contracts are in the Aberdeen area, with most being in the central belt.
Repayments
Critics point out that some of the PFI operators have banked repayments over the length of these deals at up to 10 times the original cost of building the facilities.
Unison union Scottish secretary Lilian Macer said: "These PFI buyback clauses are quite frankly a scandal. Private firms have already been handsomely paid by the taxpayer over the course of the contract.
"Once you pay up your mortgage, you don't then have to pay a penalty clause to own your home. At the very least, it should be the same for public services."
PFI was introduced by John Major's Conservative government, but Labour was the biggest supporter of the controversial financing model.
It meant the upfront cost of building such as schools and hospitals was taken on by the private sector in return for repayments to cover construction and maintenance, typically over a 25-year period.
Criticism
But the scale of profits made by PFI operators, and the build quality of some sites, have faced widespread criticism.
The contracts with "buy back" clauses were among the first wave of PFI deals signed by Tony Blair's Labour government.
Most subsequent private finance deals did not include this type of clause.