4,068 households are now waiting for social housing in Oxford, up from 3,961 in April. Only 401 homes were let last year, 49 fewer than the year before.

There are now 4,068 applicants on Oxford’s housing register, the council’s waiting list for social housing. That is 107 more than in April. The council says it receives an average of 160 new applications a month (Oxford City Council, 14 October 2026).

The council’s own lettings plan shows the other side of the problem. In the year to March 2026, 401 homes were let through the register. The year before, it was 450.

The numbers

The council’s release breaks down what applicants need:

  • 2,035 need a one-bedroom home, around half of the register
  • 1,761 need two or three bedrooms, 43% of applications
  • the release does not break down the remaining 272

The council’s Annual Lettings Plan, dated 27 August, gives what became available in 2025/26. Of the 401 lets, 68 were new-build or newly bought homes and 333 were existing homes re-let. By size:

Size Homes let in 2025/26
Studio or one-bed 178
Two-bed 127
Three-bed 79
Four-bed 15
Five-bed 2
Total 401

(Oxford City Council, Annual Lettings Plan 2026/27)

Put the two side by side and the gap is plain. There are more than eleven one-bed applicants for every one-bed or studio home let in a year. For two and three-bed homes it is between eight and nine to one.

Bar chart. Applicants on Oxford's housing register in October 2026 against homes let through the register in 2025/26. One-bed: 2,035 waiting, 178 one-bed and studio homes let. Two and three-bed: 1,761 waiting, 206 homes let.
Waiting now against homes let in the last full year. Chart by The Oxford Post
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The list is getting longer and lets are falling

The lettings plan says there were 3,961 live applications in April 2026, up 3% on the year before. It says the number “continues to rise”.

Lets went the other way. The previous year’s plan recorded 450 households rehoused through the register between April 2024 and March 2025 (Annual Lettings Plan 2025/26, archived copy). The 2025/26 figure of 401 is 49 fewer.

The plan gives one reason re-lets are down. Several blocks of flats have been emptied for decommissioning work, so their homes are not being re-let through the register.

It also expects a better year ahead. If 382 new homes are delivered in 2026/27, the plan estimates around 700 properties will become available to let between April 2026 and March 2027. It warns that handovers of new-build homes are “subject to change”.

Not everyone on the list is homeless

The register is made up of three lists, and they are not all the same kind of need.

  • The Homeless List is for people the council has a homelessness duty to.
  • The Transfer List is for existing council and housing association tenants who want to move. In April it held 1,566 applications, 39.5% of the register.
  • The General Register List is for everyone else.

Homes go by priority band, not time waited. The council’s allocations scheme says many tenants on the Transfer List “are unlikely to receive an offer of housing unless they are in high housing need”, and that larger families “may have to wait many years” (Oxford City Council, allocations scheme summary).

Temporary accommodation is the sharpest pressure. In April there were 331 households in temporary accommodation, 91 of them in emergency hotel rooms, according to the lettings plan. Of the 401 households rehoused in 2025/26, 158 were homeless households.

What the council says

The council’s release adds two figures on cost. It says average private rents in Oxford reached £1,963 a month in August 2026, citing ONS figures. It says that is about 55% of the median full-time earnings of people living in the city. It also points to the Centre for Cities’ Cities Outlook 2026 report, which put Oxford top of the UK’s least affordable cities.

Councillor Linda Smith, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, said:

If there was any doubt that Oxford is in the midst of a housing crisis, the fact that over 4,000 people are now on our Housing Register is a stark reminder.

The council lists what it is building through its housing company, OX Place:

  • Sandy Lane, 331 homes
  • Northfield, 51 homes
  • Bertie Place, 31 homes

Its four-year programme aims for 1,632 affordable homes, 1,072 of them for social rent. Earlier this month 61 households from the register moved into Chestnut Tower in Blackbird Leys: see Chestnut Tower’s first residents.

The release ends with a political argument. The council says Oxford has run out of large development sites, and that a Greater Oxford Council could release a small part of the Green Belt for 40,000 homes, 16,000 of them social and affordable, by 2040. That depends on local government reorganisation, which ministers have paused. On the same day, Oxfordshire County Council took a formal legal step against the three-council plan: see Oxfordshire County Council moves towards judicial review.

What it means for you

  • If you are on the register, your chance of an offer depends on your priority band, not how long you have waited. If your circumstances change, contact the council’s Housing Needs Team.
  • If you are a council or housing association tenant wanting to move, the council suggests a mutual exchange may be quicker than waiting on the Transfer List.
  • If you are thinking of applying, the eligibility rules and the five priority bands are set out in the allocations scheme summary.

For the wider market, our Oxford house prices page tracks sale prices across the city.

Sources