Gloucestershire Homeseeker

About Homeseeker

What is Gloucestershire Homeseeker?

Gloucestershire Homeseeker is our county's choice based lettings system for letting social housing. It is a partnership formed between all six local Councils in Gloucestershire and many of the Housing Associations and social landlords (who are known as Registered Providers).  Click here to view our partner landlords. 

Who can register with Gloucestershire Homeseeker?

Gloucestershire Homeseeker is open to almost anyone. A joint tenancy shall only be granted to eligible and suitable households subject to the policies of each individual landlord.  A household may include:

• Existing tenants looking to transfer to another property.
• Homeless families looking for a permanent home.
• Households who either rent in the private sector, own, or who are buying a property.
• Households lodging with family and friends.

Who cannot apply?

• Persons from abroad deemed ineligible through immigration rules and regulations.
• Persons under 16 years of age. (It should be noted that a tenancy would not usually be given to households under the age of 18 years. A guarantor would normally be required for any person under 18 years of age who is offered, and accepts a tenancy).
• Social housing is only available as your only or principal home.  Therefore if you, or anyone in your household owns any other property, you are generally not eligible to have a tenancy (see section 9 of the Gloucestershire Homeseeker Policy for details of exceptions).  
• You may not hold two tenancies at one time, and must be able to end your current tenancy if you accept an offer of a tenancy through Gloucestershire Homeseeker.

What has changed from before?

Many councils in Gloucestershire used a points system to allocate social housing in their area.  The household at the top of the list were usually offered the property without knowing about the property before it was offered to them.

Gloucestershire Homeseeker allows applicants to look at an advert of the property, like an estate agent, read about the property and the area it is in, and chose whether or not they would like to be considered for it.

Gloucestershire Homeseeker gives you the control to bid on a property you would like to live in.

How do I apply to Gloucestershire Homeseeker?

1. Register - complete a New Household Registration Form (for more information and guidance click here )
2. Banding - your application will be made active within 3 to 4 weeks and you will receive either a letter or email confirming what bands you have been placed in (for more information about banding click here )
3. View Adverts - once you are active you can view available properties.
4. Bid - place up to 3 bids each week on properties you are interested in.  You must log in to your account to bid (for more information about bidding click here ).
5. Offer - once the bidding cycle closes, the will usually be offered to the applicant who matches the criteria of the advert, who is in the highest band, and who has the earliest application date.  If your bid is successful, you will be contacted by the landlord of the property directly (for more information about offers click here ).

To look at a detailed guide about how to apply, how to bid and what happens when an offer is made, please view the Scheme Guide.  Or see our FAQ pages.

What happens to my application?

• Applicant's who would like social housing must register online - click here to complete a New Household Registration Form or contact your local council housing team  for assistance.
• Once the registration process is complete the system will tell you what bands you have been placed in.  Please note that this is temporary banding.
• Once the Housing Advice/Options Team have made your application active (within 3-4 weeks), you will receive either a letter or an email confirming what bands you have been placed in, your effective date and what size property you are eligible for.  You may also be asked to send in any supporting evidence, such as birth certificates and medical documents.  Although you will be able to bid for available properties, you will not be offered a tenancy until the documents have been given to your Housing Advice/ Options Team.

How do I contact Gloucestershire Homeseeker?  

There is not one central team for Gloucestershire Homeseeker.  The scheme is administered by all 6 local Councils and each Council Housing Team will still manage the applications for their area.  You must therefore contact your local Council's Housing Advice/Options Team  if you need any assistance with your Gloucestershire Homeseeker application, or if you need housing advice. 

For more information please see our FAQ pages.

To view our publications, please see the Documents page.