The difference between Social Rent and Affordable Rent is that Affordable Rent will be higher as it allows us to charge up to 80% of market rent levels within the local area.
Affordable Rents apply to new developments or converted social rent properties and will not apply to all social housing.
As we are only applying these rents to a percentage of properties, from time to time you may see properties in the same street advertised at two different rents or you may pay a different rent to your neighbour.
How do I qualify for a property?
Properties are advertised in the usual way and you will need to place a bid if you wish to be considered for a property.
The rent is higher than social rent. So, we will do financial asessments to make sure the property is affordable before we proceed with an allocation. In most cases, where applicants are eligible to receive housing benefit or the housing element of universal credit, the rent would be covered by this payment.
How do you prioritise applications?
We allocate Affordable Rented properties in the same way as Social Rented ones. There will be no changes in the services for tenants.
The property will be offered to the applicant with the highest priority on the housing register that places a bid on the property.
Why are you doing this?
The rent from these tenancies help to support the building of more new homes to meet the shortage of homes in the borough.