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Applying for a council home

We are the largest social housing provider in Darlington. We have a wide range of homes to suit households needs, these include:

  • 2-, 3- and 4-bedroom houses
  • 1- and 2-bedroom apartments and flats
  • 1-bedroom bungalows

We also offer:

Demand for our homes is extremely high, so we recommend that you consider all types of housing when looking for a home. Currently we have over 2,200 applicants on our waiting list - also known as the housing register. Some of these are Council tenants who would like to move, some are renting privately or living with family, and some have been accepted by the Council because they are homeless.

We have approximately 300 homes to let each year which includes any of our new build accommodation. This means that less than 14% of people on the register will receive an offer each year.

Below is the average waiting time for re-housing based on priority bands for 2024/2025. Please note that this is an average so some applicants can wait longer, we cannot guarantee you will receive an offer of accommodation within these timescales.

 

Band 1

Band 2

Band 3

Band 4

1-bed

179

218

131

240

2-bed

305

300

288

531

3-bed

277

255

578

341

4+-bed

392

474

None allocated

None allocated

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

You can apply online at Darlington HomeSearch [external link], our stand alone digital lettings platform.  On the HomeSearch website you can complete a simple online application form and view our advertised properties.

When you complete an application, you will be asked to provide supporting documents.  Once your application has been fully verified you will be able to apply for available properties that meet your housing needs.

We will assess your housing need using the Housing Services Allocation policy [pdf document]. 

We consider your current circumstances and medical needs where applicable, and you will be placed in a band relevant to your housing need.  The bands are numbered from 1-4, most applicants will be placed in Band 4 when they first register. If you are later found to have a higher priority you may be moved to a higher band. Summary of housing priority bands [pdf document].

We have properties located across the Borough and in some of the villages outside of Darlington.

To help you we have compiled a table of properties we own in each area in total, these are not empty homes but the total number of properties we own in that area as of 07/04/2025.

Current Stock Breakdown [pdf document]

*Please note this data can change depending on sales of Council homes through Right to Buy, new build developments and acquisitions.

Yes, some other registered providers advertise through HomeSearch as well as their own lettings systems. Once your HomeSearch application is verified, you can bid (express your interest) on their properties.  Contact details of the other social landlords we work with can be found here.

We have created the following guides to help you register and start using Darlington HomeSearch.

You can also contact our helpful Housing Allocation team by emailing or phoning us and they can support you in registering and using the system.

Once your application is verified you can see what band you are in by:

  • logging in to your account
  • clicking on "Housing Register"
  • scroll down the page to click on "View Need Assessment" 

We will upload our new adverts to Darlington HomeSearch [external link] every Thursday morning.  They will run until the following Tuesday night and then close.

We will review the shortlisted applicants on Wednesday and we will contact the successful applicants after that.

Unfortunately it is not possible to contact unsuccessful applicants.

Bidding on a property means you are expressing your interest in that property.

You can bid for properties that meet your assessed requirement once your application is verified.

We can offer telephone appointments to customers who are unable to register online themselves.  During the appointment we will also discuss how you can apply for properties and discuss any additional support you might require.

Please call 01325 405333 to request an telephone appointment.

If you are homeless, threatened with homelessness or in urgent housing need please contact us for advice.  For further information please go to our homeless advice pages.

We generally do not advertise properties on Wednesdays so you will not see any adverts if you visit Darlington HomeSearch [external link] on this day.

If you have very specific search criteria you may also find that sometimes there are no advertised properties matching your criteria that week.

You can upload information to HomeSearch [external link] at anytime but if your application has already been verified and you want us to reassess it, please let us know via email that you are uploading additional information.

If you think we have got our decision wrong about your application, you can ask for a review of that decision. You have 21 days from the date of notification to request a review of the decision made. The review would be carried out by an Officer senior to the one that made the decision and who was not involved in the application or decision originally. You should put your request in writing to us, this could be an email if you prefer, and it should give as much detail as possible about why you think the decision should be changed. It will help your request if you include any evidence to support the request as well as explaining anything that has changed since you applied. The review will be based on your request letter as well as any other evidence we hold, or you have provided. For more advice you can access the Citizens Advice website [external link].

If you would like to find more information about how we allocate our properties, please see out Allocation policy it is also available in other languages below. 

How to contact us

There are several ways housing applicants and tenants can contact us:

Tenants can report emergency repairs to 01325 405333 24/7 365 days a year.

What if I am not satisfied with the response?

We hope that we can work together with our residents and listen to their voices and resolve any problems, but if you are unhappy with the response from the Housing team we have a complaints procedure you can follow and you can contact our Complaints Team by:

Install our web app.