Glut of long-term empty homes slammed as rental shortage continues

New research shows there are 36,210 long-term vacant homes across London - that’s around one in every 100 properties.

The borough in which vacant units make up the largest proportion of local stock is the City of London. While there are just 261 empty properties, they equate to 3.4 per cent of all dwellings. 

Southwark is home to the second highest proportion of long-term empty homes, accounting for 2.0 per cent of the borough’s total dwellings stock. Southwark is also home to the highest actual number of vacant properties, where 2,920 homes with an estimated market value of £1.6 billion have been sitting empty for six months or more.

Newham is home to the next largest total number of long-term vacant homes (2,053) with a combined market value of £889.3 million; and in Barnet there are some 1,905 empty units with a combined market value of £1.1 billion. 

Lambeth has 1,886 long-term empty units which, based on the borough’s average house price, have a total market value of £1.1 billion.

Kensington & Chelsea completes the top five boroughs with the highest number of long-term empty homes. 1,720 homes across the borough have been vacant for more than six months, and due to the high local house prices, they have the highest combined market value of any borough at a total of £2.3 billion.

The assessment was made by Monta Capital. Its chief executive, Thomas Balashev, says: “London’s housing crisis seems to have been going on forever and no government, local or central, seems able to present a viable and practical solution. With the arguments around the capital’s crisis so enduring, how can it still be that so many houses are sitting empty? 

“More needs to be done to address these vacant dwellings, and it starts with introducing more incentives and initiatives in the planning process. This is the responsibility of the public sector.”