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More UK homes left unoccupied, ONS statistics show (2 June 2014)

Date: 02/06/2014
Duncan Lewis, Housing Solicitors, More UK homes left unoccupied, ONS statistics show

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that for the year 2011 – the most recent for which data is available – there were 1.1 million homes in the UK with no regular occupant.

Overseas investment in the UK property market is often cited as one reason for Britain’s housing shortage, with properties – often at the higher end of the property market – snapped up without ever having been marketed to UK buyers, and then left empty.

The 2011 figure for empty houses across Britain represents an increase of 185,000 over a 10-year period.

Housing experts say that the UK needs to build 250,000 new homes every year to keep pace with demand.

Newcomers coming to live and work in the UK from EU member states and from outside Europe have also had an impact on Britain’s urgent need for more homes to be built.

House prices across the UK are also increasing rapidly, with property prices across the country increasing by 9.1% on average last year – while in London the average annual increase was nearly 18% last year.

A report by the National Housing Federation has also said that a baby boom from 2000 has also placed a strain on housing – migrants from the EU first began arriving from around 2004 onwards under the New Labour government and many have settled in the UK with their families or gone on to have families in Britain. Children born from 2000 onwards will also increase pressure on demand for new homes as they begin to reach adulthood.

Government estimates of annual housing needs have suggested that nearly 300,000 new homes need to be built every year, but currently only around half that number are being built.

The shortage of affordable homes to buy has placed pressure on the rental sector – with increasing competition for affordable rental properties and many families now renting homes rather than buying a family home.

The government’s Help to Buy scheme has been designed to help first-time buyers get on the property ladder and has been most widely used outside London, where house prices are more likely to fall beneath the scheme’s £600,000 upper limit for homes eligible for purchase under Help to Buy.

However, homes bought and left empty – or bought as buy-to-let concerns – have added to the shortage of homes available for purchase.

Overseas investors may buy property as apart of a property portfolio with no intention of ever living in the property – there have been concerns that some new developments are marketed exclusively to overseas property investors eager to build up a property portfolio, without UK buyers even getting the chance to buy a home in new housing developments in Britain.

ONS figures show that in 2001, just 12% of occupied homes were rented – by 2011, this figure had increase to 18% of occupied homes.

A spokesman from the Generation Rent campaign said:

“The government has no hope of reversing this trend with a scheme like Help to Buy.

“The nation's renters need better rights in the rental market if they want to live somewhere they can genuinely call home.

"Today's statistics confirm that our broken housing market is creating deep divisions in society.

“Wealthy property owners can afford to leave houses to stand empty – while more people who can't buy are forced to squeeze into overcrowded private renting."

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For expert advice on housing law, contact Duncan Lewis housing solicitors on 020 7923 4020.


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