Almost half of the total social housing applications are for Inverness, where applications jumped by 10% last year, while Badenoch and Strathspey, Wester Ross, Nairn and Lochaber are also under pressure for social housing. 

In high-demand areas, more than 50% of allocations go to people who are technically homeless.

Highland Council works with six social housing partners, which together provide 20,000 social houses in Highland, however, as applications increase in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, housing chiefs have revealed that they can’t keep up with demand in some areas.

These 20,000 homes are 23% of the housing market, which is 8% lower than the national average. Across Scotland, 31% of properties are social housing.

In 2021-22, Highland Council and its social housing partners dealt with 9,416 new housing or transfer applications. It allocated homes to 2,033 applicants in the same year. Pre-COVID-19, there were 7,785 applications and 1,292 allocations.

The rise in demand was caused by Scottish Government lockdown restrictions on moving to a new home. When the restrictions lifted, social housing providers faced a backlog of applications, The Press and Journal reports. 

The Highland Council said the latest figures suggest demand is now starting to return to pre-pandemic levels. The figures are part of an annual report which will go before the Highland Council housing committee this week.