Housing Options Guide 1

Section 1. Council housing

Moray is a very popular place to live and demand for Council housing is high.  We have around 6,342 lettable properties across Moray. We have about 2,951 applicants on our housing list. This includes waiting list, transfer and homeless applicants.

We let properties which become vacant based on housing need. During 2022/23 we created 465 new tenancies.

For every council house that becomes available, there is an average of seven applicants.  Not everyone who applies will be successful. Your chances will depend on the supply and demand of housing in the area where you want to live.

Our housing stock

We have around 6,342 lettable properties spread across Moray with the main areas being Elgin, Buckie, Forres, Keith and Lossiemouth. The rest are dispersed in smaller settlements.  Most properties are suitable for people with general needs, although there are some sheltered properties and other types of amenity housing.

Around half of our properties have two bedrooms. Slightly over a quarter of our stock has one bedroom and just under a quarter have three bedrooms.

You can view charts showing the size of our housing by housing market area.

The impact of Right to Buy on our stock (ended 1 August 2016).

Some council tenants, depending on when they became a tenant, had the right to buy their home.  More than half of Moray’s council housing stock has been sold to sitting tenants since "Right-to-Buy" legislation was introduced in the early 1980's.   The long term impact of Right to Buy is that we have less council properties available to rent.  Our new build housing programme is one of the measures which helps to address the shortfall in social housing.

Our new build housing programme

We have a programme of new build housing developments.  You can find out more on our dedicated New Build Programme page.  

We use Lettings Plans to help us allocate our new build properties when we let them for the first time.  Lettings Plans work alongside our Allocations Policy and help us to:

  • Respond to local housing need and demand
  • Suitably match applicants to properties: and
  • Achieve a balanced housing mix within a particular area.

Although we are building new homes, this alone will not bridge the gap between supply and demand. There is an imbalance between the demand for our properties and the number of applicants requesting the type and size of property available.

Use the following links for more information on:

1a.  Where our stock is located and the supply and demand for housing by lettings area

1b.  Rent levels

1c.  How to apply for our housing and how points are allocated

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