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If you are homeless or threatened with homelessness, please see our advice for people who are or become homeless.

Common Housing Register

Perth and Kinross is a very popular place to live.

Our revised Common Allocations Policy was approved by the Council's Housing and Communities Committee in March 2025 and took effect from 1 April 2025.

The revised policy is operated in partnership by:

• Perth and Kinross Council
• Caledonia Housing Association
• Hillcrest Homes
• Kingdom Housing Association

Together these landlords manage a housing stock of more than 11,000 affordable homes, and have a major impact in meeting housing need across Perth and Kinross. Access to these properties is via a Common Housing Register (CHR) which is a single point of access for housing applicants.

Unfortunately, there is an excess demand for affordable housing in Perth and Kinross. There are around 1,000 vacancies every year within the housing stock of the partners listed above, but there are currently around 3,000 applicants on the waiting list.

This means that we are not able to offer a property to everyone who applies for housing. Those that are made an offer will be people in urgent housing need, such as people who are homeless, those with a medical need and families living in overcrowded accommodation. Read our article on common misconceptions about the way we allocate houses.

Housing Options

You can use the our automated Housing Options Self-Assessment service to get housing advice and check what housing options are available to you. This will give you tailored advice based on your current housing circumstances.

If you require a Housing Options interview, please contact the Housing Options Team by calling 01738 476000 (choose option 3), or email your enquiry to HousingOptions@pkc.gov.uk.

You can download an application form (PDF, 925 KB) and email it to us, or hand it on to one of our Locality Housing Offices.

If you feel you have an urgent need for rehousing, you can contact us by telephone on 01738 476000 during normal office hours. You will be provided with information, advice and assistance, and an application will be completed if appropriate.

Older Person's Housing

The Common Housing Register partners offer some types of accommodation that are specifically for older people and there is a slightly different application process for these. Please see our page on Older Person's Housing for further information.

How long will my application take?

We aim to have fully assessed your Common Housing Register application within 20 working days (four weeks). Please note however that due to current circumstances, the assessment of non-urgent applications may take longer than this.

How do we assess priority for rehousing?

The Common Allocations Policy is based on a 'group plus points' system, as explained in the Assessing your housing need section of the policy.

The system is designed to be open, transparent and fair and to ensure that properties are allocated to the people who need housing most across a range of priority groups. Around 50% of properties are allocated to people that have been assessed as homeless.

From our experience, there are some common circumstances where applicants often expect to receive a greater level of priority than is actually awarded. These include neighbour disputes, medical conditions and property disrepair. We have prepared information sheets on these areas which explain how we assess these issues. These are available in the downloads section of this page.

Changes to your details

If you already have a Common Housing Register application, it's important that you tell us if there has been in a change in your circumstances such as a change to your contact details or a new baby. If the information we hold about you is out of date, this could affect your chances of being offered a property.

Please email us using the change of circumstances form (PDF, 162 KB) or the change of address form (PDF, 131 KB) to advise us. Quote your application number if you know it or include your name and address so we can identify your application. If you would prefer, you can print and complete these forms and return them to the address below.

We may be able to assist you to access affordable housing in the private sector. Please see information on our Rent Bond Guarantee Scheme.