Homechoice at Reading – How to bid

On this page:

• About Homechoice at Reading
• Accessing Homechoice at Reading
• How to place a bid
• How to remove a selected property
• How to find your current bids
• How to withdraw a bid

About Homechoice at Reading

In order to place bids on properties, you’ll need a Housing Online account to access Homechoice at Reading. For guidance on how to create an account, visit our Housing Online: How to register web page.

Homechoice at Reading is Reading Borough Council’s housing register, containing a list of customers who have applied for social housing in Reading. Registering with Homechoice at Reading will allow you to bid on social housing within the borough.

Accessing Homechoice at Reading

By selecting Choice Based Lettings from the Housing Online homepage, you’ll navigate to the Homechoice at Reading welcome screen. Before you start bidding, take the time to familiarise yourself with this new area:

1. Dashboard

Your Homechoice at Reading dashboard is unique to you and displays the following information:

• your application reference number
• the maximum number of bids you can make
• how many bids you have made
• how many bedrooms you have been assessed as needing
• your current banding assessment
• active property adverts and their start and end dates

2. Actions

Using the actions dropdown menu in the top right-hand corner of the welcome screen, you can view the following:

• properties that you have selected but not placed a bid on
• properties that you have submitted bids on
• a list of available properties
• previous (closed) property adverts

How to place a bid

1. Select ‘list of available properties’ from the actions dropdown menu to see the list of available properties that you’ve been matched with

2. Click on ‘view details’ for further details of the property and select the ‘make a bid’ button.
   Note: this will add the property to a ‘selected bid’ list – confirmation is required before the bid is placed. You can add a maximum of three properties to your ‘selected’ list.

3. To confirm your selection and complete a bid, select the ‘view properties selected’ button, then click ‘place bid’

Please note: You can bid on up to three properties at once. If the properties you select for bidding have different advert days assigned to them (e.g. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, etc.), your bid will only be confirmed for one day at a time. This means you’ll need to click the ‘place bid’ button separately for each property/advert day.

How to remove a selected property

From the Homechoice at Reading welcome screen, select the ‘actions’ dropdown menu and select ‘properties I have selected but not yet placed bids on’. Select any properties you wish to remove by clicking the checkbox in the ‘remove’ column. Click the ‘remove’ button.

How to find your current bids

From the Homechoice at Reading welcome screen, select the ‘actions’ dropdown menu and select ‘properties I have submitted bids on’ to view your current bids.

How to withdraw a bid

As you can only bid on three available properties at a time, you may decide to withdraw a bid if you subsequently view another property that you would prefer.

To do this, select the ‘actions’ dropdown menu in the top right-hand corner of the Homechoice at Reading welcome screen and select ‘properties I have submitted bids on’. Select any properties you wish to remove by clicking the checkbox in the ‘withdraw’ column. Click the ‘withdraw bid’ button.

Help and support

If you need support using the new bidding system, please contact the Customer Fulfilment Centre on 0118 937 3737.