Apply for housing

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

Common Housing Register

Perth & Kinross is a very popular place to live. 

Our revised Common Allocations Policy (PDF, 1 MB) was approved by the Council's Housing & Communities Committee in March 2019 and took effect from the 1 April 2019.

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.

Housing Options

If you require a Housing Options interview, please contact the Housing Options and Support 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 re-housing, 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 People'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 Persons 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 (4 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 (PDF, 531 KB) is based on a 'Groups Plus Points' system - please see pages 14-18 in the linked policy document for details of how this works.

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.