Looking for a home

If you wish to apply for a City Corporation property, you must complete a housing application form. Once completed, the Housing Needs Team will assess you and award reasonable preference points.

Once you are on the Housing Register you will be able to bid on available properties using our choice based letting system. Homes are then offered to the bidder with the highest reasonable preference points.

There are a large number of households on the City's Housing Register and we are not able to offer a home to everybody who applies.

​Many people face a long wait for social housing and people with lower housing needs may not be rehoused at all. Because there are far more people seeking council and housing association homes than available homes, the City operates an allocations policy to ensure fairness in our decision-making.

The City allocates some applicants from the Housing Register to the Housing Associations with which we work in partnership, namely Guinness, Peabody Trust and Toynbee. This is also done through the Choice Based Lettings scheme.

A current tenant of the City of London who is living in overcrowded accommodation or wishes/needs to downsize can apply for a transfer.

You can apply for a transfer using the same form as the waiting list, but you only need to send us proof of any additional family members in your household. We do not need you to send proof for any family members that were with you when you moved into your current property, however, please list the whole family on the form.

A City of London tenant, who wishes to move to a property of the same size but in another location or estate, will need to register for a mutual exchange through HomeSwapper and/or through other online providers.

From 1 April 2016 City of London secure tenants living in a studio property who are over 45 years of age are able to apply for a transfer into a one bedroom property.

Please ask the Housing Needs Team for more details on any of these transfer options. 

For information on the City of London Corporation's sheltered housing schemes, please view the Housing for older people webpage.

For more information on housing options please contact the Housing Needs Team or call 0207 332 1654 / 1237 / 3452.

There is no shortcut to the waiting list, so you may need to make alternative decisions about your housing.

You can approach your local Citizens Advice, Toynbee Hall or other independent advice agencies for support.

Shelter can provide you with independent advice about what to do if you are homeless or having problems with your accommodation and may become homeless.​