We advertise all of our available homes on our Find A Home page, simply visit this page for more information.

Before you can place a bid on one of our homes, you must first have an active account with the relevant Choice Based Lettings Scheme. Almost all our homes are located in County Durham and therefore are allocated through the Durham Key Options scheme. Durham Key Options (DKO) is a partnership between Durham County Council and landlords across County Durham.

Once your application is approved, you will then be able to bid on homes that meet your needs. You can access the application form directly by visiting Durham Key Options. If you’re still unsure how to do this, you can watch our helpful video which talks you through the process.

We have a small number of homes which are located outside Durham, these are all advertised through the Compass Choice Based Lettings scheme in Teesside; Compass is similar to Durham Key Options but we do not process applications registered for this scheme. If you wish to register an application for homes advertised in this area, please apply directly with Compass.

We aim to start processing your application within 10 working days. If we require any further information after this point, we will contact you to ask for this. Once we have received all the required information we will notify you of our decision within 20 days, and if accepted we will activate your account. You can also check your application status online by logging into the DKO portal.

To find out more about the different ways you can get involved, please visit our getting involved section.