Finding a home

Tower Hamlets is an area where demand is greater than the supply of affordable housing. Tower Hamlets Council’s allocations scheme is designed to target the available supply of homes to the people in most need.

We try to give the best advice to you about your prospects for housing through Tower Hamlets housing register. The housing register is managed by the council and partner social landlords.

Whatever your reason for applying to the housing register, it may take a long time before we are able to offer you a home but we can also give you information about your other housing options.

We treat each application to join the Tower Hamlets housing register on its individual merits. You can download the revised allocation scheme for more information.

Homefinder UK

Homefinder UK is a national housing mobility scheme which brings social housing applicants, properties and landlords together, all in one portal.

With a fast growing supply of properties nationwide, this scheme helps tenants and homeless households, who want or need to move, to find a home that better matches their household size and personal and financial circumstances.

Homefinder UK offers the following type of schemes/properties:

immediately available social housing properties
mutual exchange
wheelchair accessible
retirement/sheltered housing
right to move - moving for employment purposes.

Case Management Service

Homefinder UK offers personalised support to applicants considering a long-distance move. Whatever help you need with finding the right social housing property, the Homefinder UK Case Management Team can help. Whether that means sourcing the property for you in your chosen location or helping you with the registration process, no task is too big, or too small!

Contact the Homefinder UK Case Management Team.

How do I find out which properties are available?

Properties are made available by landlords and advertised on the Homefinder UK website. They also offer mutual exchanges through House Exchange and access to the government's Homeswap Direct service. By registering on Homefinder UK, applicants are able to see all immediately available homes and mutual exchanges.

Tower Hamlets Council has joined the scheme to offer homeless households and tenants more choice and opportunity to find suitable homes. Homefinder UK is not run by the council.

To find out more about the scheme and to register, please go to www.homefinderuk.org.

Contact email: homefinderuk@home-connections.org.uk

For more information contact the council's housing options team.

Housing options – central registration housing service

A new simplified house hunting service developed by the Metropolitan Homes Organisation (MHO) and other East London boroughs in consultation with local housing associations is now available to Tower Hamlets residents.

The aim of the service is to provide a centralised one stop shop of affordable home ownership and rental properties for applicants who live, work or want to live in the following East London sub-region boroughs:

Barking and Dagenham
City
Hackney
Havering
Newham
Redbridge
Tower Hamlets
Waltham Forest

The Housing Options service has been designed so applicants will only have to deal with one contact and fill in one application form to access properties from all the different housing associations that operate across the sub-region. The schemes that will be available are:

Shared Ownership - A part buy, part rent scheme
Homebuy - a 25 per cent ‘equity loan’ towards a home provided by the Housing Association
Intermediate Rent - Short-term, good quality, private rented accommodation 20-30 per cent cheaper than conventional private renting.

If you would like to take advantage of the Housing Options service and be registered on one central database for the East London sub-region please call 020 3535 2760 or visit the Share to Buy website where you can find out more about the scheme, download an application form or apply online.

Moving out of Tower Hamlets in to another London Borough

Due to a change in the law, it is now possible for people to apply to join the housing register in another area.

Tower Hamlets Council does not offer this service. If you would like to do this, you should directly approach the council or other housing providers, such as housing associations, in the area you wish to move to.