Ultimate London Home Swap Guide

Find your home swap in London

We’ve put the ultimate London Home Swap guide together to help you and all London based Home Swappers explore all avenues when finding a home swap in London. This guide has been updated to include the latest Home Swap information for 2023. We suggest you read through all sections to ensure you get the most out of it. To make it easier, we have split all post into multiple sections to help you navigate and digest the information.

London Home Swapper Guide Contents:

• Facts about council homes in London

• Useful home swap websites in for home swappers in London

• How Housing Help can help you find a council home swap

• Top 10 Home Swap Facebook groups

• More Home Swap Tips

Also if you find this guide useful, please share it online to help others who are looking for council home swaps in and around London.

Why have we put this guide together for finding a homeswap in London?

The short answer is, is because it’s hard. Really hard! We appreciate if you’re reading this you probably know this and it’s nothing new that but it’s the truth. The Office for National Statistics, in 2021 stated, there were an estimated 3.5 million homes in London.

Out of this there were an estimated 1.2 million homes in London owned by Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and local authorities (councils) combined, which was reported by Greater London Authority's Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) 2020. That figure represented around 43% of the total housing stock in London at that time.

Greater London Authority's Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) 2020, there were approximately 1.2 million homes in London owned by Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and local authorities (councils) combined. This represents around 43% of the total housing stock in London.

In April 2021 the Greater London Authority, reported, there were around 325,000 council homes in London. Approximately 163,000 council flats and approximately 162,000 council houses. It is widely accepted there are far more council owned houses in London.

London Home Swap websites for London Council Home Swapper’s

There are a few council exchange websites that people can use to find a new council home to move to in London. These include:

HomeSwapper: This is a national home swap service that allows council and housing association tenants to find other tenants to swap homes with. It has a large number of listings for properties in London.

House Exchange: This is another national home swap service that allows social housing tenants to find other tenants to swap homes with. It has listings for properties across the UK, including in London.

Housing Help: Our own in-house home swap service is in the process of being re-launched.

Make sure you sign up today for our free national council exchange service, which also supports London Home Swappers.

MoveMaker: This is a service provided by the Greater London Authority that allows council and housing association tenants in London to find other tenants to swap homes with. It's specifically designed for people who want to move within London.

Mutual Exchange: This is a service provided by most local authorities in London that allows council tenants to find other council tenants to swap homes with. You can find information on your local council's website or by contacting your local housing office.

It's worth noting that these websites may have eligibility criteria or require you to register before you can use their services. Additionally, not all councils or housing associations participate in these services, so you may wish to check with your local council or housing association for other options. Home Swap websites make it easy to search through adverts but you need to check the adverts aren’t old and the home swapper who posted it is still active and used the website/.

Best Home Swapper Facebook Groups to find a Home swap in London

We have compiled a list of the top 10 largest council home swapping facebook groups. These are ranked based on the number of members they have:

Council home swaps in London - 65k members - "This group is for council home swaps only in London. No private rentals, sales or gumtree adverts allowed. This is a group for people that live in council properties only and want to exchange."

London council home swaps - 27k members - "This group is for people who want to swap their council homes within London. No private rentals, sales or gumtree adverts allowed. This is a group for people that live in council properties only and want to exchange."

London council house exchanges - 19k members - "A group for people looking to exchange their council property/house within London. Please read the rules before posting. No private rentals, sales or gumtree adverts allowed."

London council swaps and tenancy exchanges - 14k members - "This is a group for people looking to swap their council property or tenancy within London. Please only post council properties for swaps. No private rentals, sales or gumtree adverts allowed." -

London council and housing association swaps - 13k members - "A group for people in London who are council tenants, housing association tenants or have a shared ownership home who are looking to swap their home with another tenant. No private rentals, sales or gumtree adverts allowed."

Council home swap in london - 7k members - "A group for council tenants who are looking to exchange their property within the London area. No private rentals, sales or gumtree adverts allowed. Council properties only."

London mutual council house exchange - 5k members - "This is a group for people who live in a council property, housing association or have a shared ownership home in London and want to exchange their property. No private rentals, sales or gumtree adverts allowed."

Homeswaps london - 4k members - "Welcome to Homeswaps London, A group for people looking to exchange their council, housing association or shared ownership property in London."

Council house exchange in london - 3k members - "A group for council house swaps within the london area. No private rentals, sales or gumtree adverts allowed. This is a group for people that live in council properties only and want to exchange."

Homeswap council exchange london - 2k members - "A group for council tenants who are looking to exchange their property within the London area. No private rentals, sales or gumtree adverts allowed. Council properties only."

The full list of London Home Swap Facebook Groups here, click here to see the full list.

Please note that these groups are not affiliated with any local authority or housing association, and it's important to exercise caution when using them. Always check the credibility of the people you are exchanging with and be aware of potential scams.

Once again if you found this guide helpful, please copy the link and share it. Let’s spread tips which will help people find those home swaps in London.

More Home Swap Tips

You may or may not know but Housing Help has a load of other Home Swap Guides and Home Swap tips and tricks that are designed to help homeswappers around the country. If you would like to know more these can be found here -