Our new Rural Housing Guide takes you through the key elements for a successful housing project.
Rural Housing Guide
This guide is designed to help communities to take action on local housing issues. It contains information on the key elements required to develop a community housing project and highlights successful developments by communities across Scotland. The guide is a joint initiative of DTAS and the Rural Housing Service.
Click the links to go to the relevant page. Please note that parts of this guide are still under development.
So you want to build a house - introduction
- Affordable Housing - what is it?
- Case Studies
- Strathmashie, Laggan - where the community bought and renovated empty forestry houses
- Crianlarich Railway Houses - renovation of derelict railway houses
- West Harris Trust - providing house plots at low cost
- Getting Started - checklist and first steps
- Local Housing Strategies - links to all the Scottish rural local authorities
- Strategic Housing Investment Plans - as above
- Local Planning Policies - as above
- Community Engagement - checklist
Assessing housing need - introduction and checklist
- Housing Need Surveys - different ways of conducting the survey
- Housing Needs Survey Template [Word doc]
- Local House Prices - gathering information
- Second Homes - impact on the local housing market
Developing affordable rural housing - introduction
- Housing Associations + Councils - working with partners to deliver affordable rented housing
- Community Trusts - content to follow
- Land - availability of land for housing development in rural Scotland
- Planning - checking local planning policies
- Identify Potential Sites - suggestions for identifying sites
- Housing Site Checklist - questions to check for each potential site
- Infrastructure - are water supplies, sewerage, drainage, roads, etc, available?
- Empty Homes - renovating empty property
Finance - overview
- Affordable Rent - calculating the level of rent is crucial
- Low Cost Home Ownership - content to follow
- Shared Equity
- Shared Ownership
- Rural Home Ownership Grants - content to follow
- Croft House Grants - the Croft House Grant Scheme
- Sweat Equity - content to follow
- House Plots - example from West Harris Trust
- Grants - Scottish Government Innovation Fund and Second Homes Council Tax funding
- Loans - content to follow
- Alternative Finance - content to follow
Managing rural housing - introduction to being a landlord
- Allocation Policies - how to allocate properties fairly and transparently
- Local Lettings Initiatives - an example from Orkney
- Housing Management - content to follow
- Housing Maintenance - content to follow
Support - how to get help
This guide is a joint initiative by the Rural Housing Service and DTA Scotland:
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