Powys buys six more homes as earlier purchases fill up
Powys County Council bought six properties for use as council homes during the first quarter of 2026/27. The authority says the homes are being improved before allocation through the Common Housing Register.
Council home purchases
- Latest purchases
- 6
- March homes occupied
- 15 of 16
- Bought in 2025/26
- 34
- Still empty
- 1
The purchase programme adds existing properties to the council's housing stock rather than waiting for new homes to be built. The council has not published the addresses, total purchase price or expected completion dates for the six latest properties.
Fifteen of 16 homes in the March update are occupied
The council reported in March 2026 that it had bought 16 properties. It now says 15 of those are occupied, which is 93.8%. That figure describes the homes in the March update and should not be read as the occupancy rate for all council housing in Powys.
The authority also says it bought 34 homes during 2025/26 and that only one remains empty. That means 33 of the 34 are no longer empty, or 97.1%. The council's announcement does not make clear whether the 16 properties reported in March are included within that annual total, so Cover Wales has not added the figures together.
A former Right to Buy home in Knighton
One recent purchase is a three-bedroom former Right to Buy property in Knighton. Bringing it back into council ownership completed a terrace of five council-owned homes, according to the authority.
The Knighton property has had a new roof, windows, kitchen, heating, flooring, redecoration and garden work to bring it up to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard. The council says purchased homes are allocated through the same Common Housing Register used for its other social housing.
What remains unpublished
The announcement shows that most of the earlier purchases are in use, but it does not give the combined acquisition and refurbishment cost, the average cost per home, the locations of the six latest properties or how many households remain on the register. Those figures are needed to judge the programme's value and scale against local housing demand.