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Billions worth of empty homes sat vacant across Britain’s property market

Despite a house price boom driven by demand and lack of available stock, research from Barrows and Forrester finds there is an estimated £200bn worth of property sat vacant across Britain’s housing market, up 2.1% on the previous year alone.

Barrows and Forrester analysed government data on the number of vacant homes across each area of the property market as well as the average value of these dwellings, to reveal how much these empty properties are worth in current market conditions.

With 665,628 vacant dwellings, England is home to by far the highest total value, worth an estimated £190bn in the current market.

Regionally, London is home to the highest total value of all English regions, with 80,295 empty homes worth an estimated £41bn. The capital has also seen the largest annual increase in vacant dwellings stock, up 12% in the last year.

The South East and East of England also rank high, with an estimated £36.2bn and £22.9bn worth of vacant dwellings across their respective markets.

white wooden kitchen cupboards

Managing Director of Barrows and Forrester, James Forrester, said: ‘We currently find ourselves in the middle of a property market boom and huge levels of buyer demand and insufficient stock to satisfy this hunger for homeownership have pushed house prices to record highs.

‘While there’s arguably never been a better time to sell, there remains a huge number of homes sat empty across the nation and the value of these vacant properties is quite staggering, to say the least.

‘Of course, there will be varying reasons as to why these homes are empty but they could certainly go some way in addressing the current housing crisis and bringing a much needed stock boost to the market.’

The North East is home to the lowest total value of vacant dwellings of all English regions, but even still, its 43,735 empty homes are estimated to be worth £6.5bn in current market conditions.

In Scotland, the total value of vacant dwellings sits at almost £8bn, while Wales is home to the lowest total value at £5.2bn.

Across Britain as a whole, the 735,095 homes believed to be sat dormant total an estimated market value of £2bn.

In related news, the NewStart team headed to Manchester for the launch of Action on Empty Homes’ new toolkit, which helps local authorities and communities work together to bring empty homes back into use, delivering affordable and sustainable housing for local people.

Photo by Steven Ungermann

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