How to cut your waiting time for a council home

There are over 7,400 people currently on the waiting list, and a shortage of available homes, which means extremely long waiting times for council housing. Depending on your situation, you could be waiting up to 10 years for a large family home and up to four years for a studio, one or two bedroom property.

There is an acute shortage of large, family-sized properties in Southampton, but we currently have vacancies in our supported and housing with care schemes.

There are ways that you can reduce the wait time and get moving a lot sooner, such as:

Downsize

You may live in a large family home but your family have moved out, so you could downsize to a smaller and more manageable property. Not only will this save you money in rent and utilities (an important factor with spiralling energy prices), but a smaller home will be much easier for you to manage and maintain. If this is something you’re considering, please get in touch to find out more or talk to us about any barriers you’re facing to downsizing. And remember to check out the article on housing with care in this month’s issue.

Only bid for homes you will accept

Make sure that when you’re bidding on properties on Homebid you only bid for the homes you are genuinely interested in and would accept. Think carefully about each property and the location before placing a bid and check the street view online to make sure you would be happy living in the property and the area.

Consider a mutual exchange

If you already live in a council home, you can apply to swap homes with another tenant. Register for free on the Homeswapper website to find other social housing tenants also looking to switch homes. You will need to complete an application form and get permission from your Housing Officer before you can make an exchange.

Buy your own home with the Shared Ownership scheme

This enables you to buy a share of the new property, meaning you need a smaller deposit and a smaller mortgage.

To find out more about how the housing register works, making an application or to discuss downsizing, please contact our Allocations Team.