"It’s really interesting to see the number of empty houses in the UK, and that the vast majority of them are also situated in England."
Of the empty dwellings in the UK, a huge 215,625 of them (75%) are in England, 47,333 are in Scotland (16%), while 25,581 are in Wales (9%).
Of the top 10 empty dwellings in the UK, 90% are in England - with Edinburgh just making up the top 10.
The top two areas in the UK with the most empty dwellings are in Northern England – the North West and Yorkshire & Humber, with over 67,000 empty dwellings between them.
South East England has over 27,000 empty homes, while London has over 22,000.
Shelter estimates that one in every 200 people in the UK are homeless, and as of 31st December 2021, there were 95,370 British households in temporary accommodation.
And while many empty dwellings are unsafe or simply unfeasible to renovate into accommodation, nearly seven in 10 (68%) Brits surveyed felt that empty dwellings should be used to house homeless people.
Nima Ghasri, chartered surveyor and director at GoodMove, said: “It’s really interesting to see the number of empty houses in the UK, and that the vast majority of them are also situated in England. Empty dwellings vary from an abandoned house to a completely derelict building and of course not all of them are safe to be lived in, or even economically viable to be renovated into liveable properties. But with nearly seven in 10 Brits believing these empty houses could be used to accommodate homeless people in the UK, it raises a very important and interesting issue.”
