Search and bid online for a housing association property

Basingstoke Homebid is the website we use to advertise available housing association properties on a weekly basis.

You need to be registered on the council’s housing register before you can search and bid for properties on Homebid. More detail on how to apply for a housing association property.

Once you are registered you can view available properties online each week and if you see something suitable you can bid for it. Bidding means 'show an interest in'. It does not mean putting money down. You can bid through the Homebid website, by an automated telephone bidding line or text. If you need help with bidding, you can ask another person to place bids for you.

Details on how to use Homebid can be found in the Homebid User Guide in the documents section below.

Log in to Homebid to search and bid for properties

Viewing property adverts

Available properties are listed each week on the Homebid website. A newsletter showing these properties is available at various locations around the borough.

The property adverts tell you the housing association, location, size, rent and other features of the property. A photograph of the property or a similar house type will be provided. You can also access information about the local area and facilities.

The advert tells you if there are any special requirements that you must meet, such as:

• age requirements
• which bands may bid for the property
• which household size will be given priority for the property

An advert for a three-bedroom house might say people with two or more children are most likely to be offered the home. If your bedroom entitlement is different to this, you will not be able to bid for that property.

Details about which household sizes are eligible for each property type and size can be found in the Homebid User Guide in the documents section below.

Placing a bid

Property adverts are live between 12:01 am on Thursday morning and midnight on Monday. This gives you five days to put your bids on each week. You can place one bid every week. It does not matter when in the cycle you place your bid as it will not impact your final position.

If you are unable to place bids for yourself, you can ask someone to bid on your behalf, such as a friend, relative or support worker. If you are unable to ask someone to help you, please let us know.

When you bid for a property you can see where you are in the queue. This can change frequently due to other people bidding for the same property. Using this information, you may decide to withdraw your bid for one property and bid for a different property if you are higher placed in the queue. You can do this at any time before the closing date.

The Homebid website has a recent lets page which includes how many bids were placed and general information about the bidder who was successful for the most recent properties, such as how long the person had waited for the property. This information will give you an idea of how popular a particular property type or area is and how long you might have to wait.

The property offer

The applicant with the highest need band and longest waiting time will normally be offered the property. We check your eligibility and pass your details to the housing association.

The housing associations carry out their own pre tenancy checks on you if you are offered the property. They consider:

• whether you have any rent arrears and if so, how much
• if you have been involved in any anti-social behaviour

They also ask for a reference from your current landlord.

If they decide to offer you a property you will not be shortlisted for any other properties until you have decided on the first offer. You will be given an opportunity to view the property either virtually or in person and decide whether you would like to accept it.

The housing association will contact you to view the property. You can expect some or all the following measures to be in place:

• telephone or digital pre tenancy assessments
• virtual viewings with a video of the property
• requesting a digital copy of photo ID (photo or scan via email)
• tenancy agreements sent and signed digitally, for example via DocuSign or PDF.
• use of key safes

If you do not have access to technology and are unable to complete all or part of the process digitally, speak directly to the housing association.

Accepting or declining an offer

If you accept an offer through Homebid, we will mark your application as housed and then close it. If you later wish to reapply for a housing association property, you will need to make a new application to the housing register. We will assess your application in line with our allocations scheme, taking in to account your circumstances at the time.

If you decline an offer of a housing association property, you will only be made three reasonable offers. If you turn down three suitable properties, you will be demoted into band 3 for 12 months. You need to consider very carefully before refusing any offers made to you.