England Empty Homes Statistics: Complete Regional Data & Analysis

England has 272,257 long-term empty homes, properties that have stood vacant for six months or more. That is enough housing for more than 650,000 people, sitting idle while the country builds to meet demand.

The national vacancy rate is 1.06%, or roughly one home in every 94. The average hides big regional gaps, though. The North East and North West carry some of the heaviest concentrations, while a handful of London boroughs run well above the national rate. The tables below break the numbers down by every English local authority and track how the total has moved since 2013, so you can see exactly where the empty homes sit.

Article updated: June 2026

England Empty Homes by Local Authority

This table sets out long-term empty homes for every English local authority in 2024, grouped by region and ranked by the number standing empty. The vacancy rate column shows the share of all homes that are empty, which is often a sharper signal than the raw count: a small authority with a high rate has a bigger local problem than a large one that simply has more homes.

The tables below show long-term empty homes across 296 English local authorities in 2024, grouped by region and ranked by the number of empty homes. Vacancy rate is the share of all homes standing long-term empty.

London

Local authority	Empty homes	Vacancy rate	1 in X empty	Total homes	Avg house price
Southwark	2,354	1.57%	64	150,014	£573,036
Newham	2,180	1.65%	61	131,947	£426,048
Barnet	2,094	1.31%	77	160,214	£616,916
Lambeth	2,024	1.37%	73	148,202	£561,293
Kingston upon Thames	1,945	2.77%	36	70,278	£568,897
Kensington and Chelsea	1,810	2.03%	49	89,187	£1,070,326
Camden	1,793	1.58%	63	113,319	£830,814
Croydon	1,686	1%	100	167,769	£409,982
Haringey	1,574	1.38%	73	114,365	£609,121
Enfield	1,563	1.22%	82	127,948	£471,058
Tower Hamlets	1,474	0.99%	101	149,166	£510,154
Hounslow	1,452	1.31%	76	110,771	£511,556
Westminster	1,262	0.96%	104	131,827	£868,377
Bromley	1,252	0.87%	115	143,434	£517,966
Greenwich	1,203	0.97%	103	124,143	£485,772
Hackney	1,194	0.99%	101	120,387	£601,175
Harrow	1,183	1.22%	82	96,732	£532,666
Merton	1,167	1.33%	75	87,693	£617,021
Brent	937	0.7%	144	134,671	£570,649
Waltham Forest	912	0.83%	121	110,404	£522,637
Sutton	893	1.04%	97	86,206	£447,784
Redbridge	876	0.81%	123	107,835	£494,884
Havering	874	0.81%	124	108,525	£432,963
Islington	766	0.68%	147	112,407	£657,500
Lewisham	766	0.58%	174	132,903	£485,239
Bexley	706	0.69%	144	101,629	£403,541
Hammersmith and Fulham	665	0.7%	143	94,867	£751,526
Richmond upon Thames	558	0.65%	154	85,765	£765,293
Ealing	548	0.37%	273	149,531	£566,898
Hillingdon	438	0.37%	269	117,986	£476,069
Barking and Dagenham	391	0.48%	208	81,219	£355,594
Wandsworth	194	0.12%	810	157,112	£677,987
City of London	145	1.8%	56	8,057	£792,499

North East

Local authority	Empty homes	Vacancy rate	1 in X empty	Total homes	Avg house price
Durham	4,090	1.6%	62	255,046	£135,405
Northumberland	2,327	1.44%	70	161,988	£201,229
Sunderland	1,877	1.4%	72	134,455	£140,675
Newcastle upon Tyne	1,449	1.03%	97	140,444	£201,467
Middlesbrough	1,431	2.16%	46	66,379	£134,424
Stockton-on-Tees	1,308	1.44%	69	90,598	£166,579
Gateshead	1,284	1.35%	74	95,376	£153,312
South Tyneside	846	1.16%	86	72,972	£155,516
North Tyneside	807	0.79%	126	101,851	£198,764
Darlington	666	1.24%	81	53,652	£154,840
Hartlepool	646	1.41%	71	45,894	£133,301
Redcar and Cleveland	501	0.75%	133	66,546	£154,757

North West

Local authority	Empty homes	Vacancy rate	1 in X empty	Total homes	Avg house price
Liverpool	3,627	1.5%	67	241,605	£176,211
Westmorland and Furness	2,581	2.2%	46	117,530	£236,511
Rochdale	1,896	1.94%	52	97,869	£197,880
Cheshire East	1,832	0.96%	104	190,079	£294,808
Cumberland	1,798	1.3%	77	138,179	£167,296
Wirral	1,783	1.17%	85	151,821	£208,557
Bolton	1,728	1.34%	74	128,487	£191,640
Manchester	1,700	0.68%	148	251,481	£245,312
Sefton	1,659	1.26%	79	131,139	£220,341
Cheshire West and Chester	1,564	0.94%	106	166,394	£262,255
Preston	1,374	1.96%	51	69,951	£179,929
Stockport	1,288	0.97%	104	133,373	£306,538
Trafford	1,271	1.22%	82	104,146	£385,590
Blackpool	1,209	1.66%	60	72,629	£134,013
Wigan	1,154	0.75%	133	153,158	£186,594
Salford	1,090	0.81%	124	135,052	£222,595
Bury	1,087	1.27%	78	85,264	£232,731
Oldham	1,044	1.06%	95	98,912	£197,458
Blackburn with Darwen	988	1.55%	65	63,827	£158,790
Tameside	922	0.87%	114	105,556	£203,630
Lancaster	875	1.31%	76	66,802	£197,104
St Helens	874	1.02%	98	85,938	£175,520
Fylde	684	1.65%	61	41,551	£231,814
Knowsley	673	0.94%	106	71,484	£180,660
West Lancashire	665	1.26%	79	52,579	£232,303
Warrington	653	0.67%	149	97,237	£239,625
Pendle	649	1.56%	64	41,602	£141,891
Burnley	638	1.48%	67	43,003	£122,188
Halton	595	1.01%	99	59,160	£181,814
Rossendale	586	1.78%	56	32,847	£185,731
Chorley	543	1.02%	98	53,081	£207,177
South Ribble	524	1%	100	52,221	£207,559
Hyndburn	473	1.25%	80	37,948	£129,256
Ribble Valley	330	1.11%	90	29,597	£273,246
Wyre	128	0.23%	436	55,839	£184,008

Yorkshire & The Humber

Local authority	Empty homes	Vacancy rate	1 in X empty	Total homes	Avg house price
North Yorkshire	3,755	1.23%	81	305,295	£276,027
Leeds	3,454	0.92%	109	375,552	£244,576
Bradford	3,308	1.48%	68	223,592	£177,168
Sheffield	2,520	0.96%	104	261,707	£216,928
Kirklees	2,334	1.21%	83	192,994	£200,545
Doncaster	2,030	1.41%	71	144,382	£165,067
Kingston upon Hull	1,963	1.57%	64	125,007	£134,561
East Riding of Yorkshire	1,737	1.05%	95	165,803	£216,225
Wakefield	1,593	0.97%	104	164,934	£195,364
Calderdale	1,587	1.63%	61	97,316	£178,357
North East Lincolnshire	1,355	1.79%	56	75,622	£152,249
Barnsley	1,251	1.08%	92	115,406	£169,898
North Lincolnshire	1,020	1.31%	76	77,906	£176,056
York	1,013	1.08%	92	93,466	£303,107
Rotherham	996	0.82%	122	121,996	£179,812

East Midlands

Local authority	Empty homes	Vacancy rate	1 in X empty	Total homes	Avg house price
Leicester	1,860	1.28%	78	144,999	£231,017
Nottingham	1,692	1.15%	87	147,060	£194,350
North Northamptonshire	1,542	0.96%	104	160,391	£257,486
Derby	1,432	1.25%	80	114,495	£211,599
East Lindsey	1,300	1.79%	56	72,585	£220,950
West Northamptonshire	1,229	0.66%	151	185,158	£290,225
Amber Valley	1,041	1.71%	59	60,918	£230,558
Bolsover	901	2.33%	43	38,750	£180,628
Chesterfield	897	1.75%	57	51,255	£196,753
Charnwood	882	1.11%	90	79,398	£267,495
Newark and Sherwood	848	1.45%	69	58,347	£236,706
Erewash	806	1.52%	66	53,130	£218,897
Bassetlaw	780	1.36%	73	57,234	£211,266
West Lindsey	721	1.55%	65	46,524	£207,448
Derbyshire Dales	673	1.89%	53	35,651	£342,990
North East Derbyshire	643	1.32%	76	48,847	£250,644
High Peak	642	1.47%	68	43,771	£253,283
Mansfield	561	1.09%	92	51,437	£184,700
Broxtowe	557	1.07%	93	51,971	£245,976
North Kesteven	534	0.97%	103	54,964	£233,291
Ashfield	531	0.92%	109	57,858	£190,849
South Holland	513	1.15%	87	44,526	£231,254
Rushcliffe	497	0.9%	111	55,058	£331,066
South Kesteven	494	0.73%	136	67,234	£257,794
South Derbyshire	492	0.97%	103	50,678	£259,685
North West Leicestershire	456	0.93%	107	48,854	£281,896
Gedling	450	0.82%	122	55,056	£250,437
Hinckley and Bosworth	427	0.81%	123	52,628	£259,029
Lincoln	425	0.89%	112	47,666	£182,156
Harborough	422	0.95%	106	44,648	£356,463
Blaby	354	0.79%	126	44,744	£289,678
Boston	342	1.07%	93	31,858	£184,599
Rutland	239	1.32%	76	18,084	£347,476
Melton	189	0.76%	132	24,938	£284,181
Oadby and Wigston	181	0.74%	135	24,455	£256,062

West Midlands

Local authority	Empty homes	Vacancy rate	1 in X empty	Total homes	Avg house price
Birmingham	5,406	1.16%	86	464,955	£232,231
Stoke-on-Trent	1,644	1.37%	73	119,628	£142,901
Coventry	1,624	1.06%	94	152,763	£227,509
Shropshire	1,611	1.06%	94	151,872	£278,003
Wolverhampton	1,485	1.3%	77	113,966	£205,961
Sandwell	1,312	0.96%	104	136,641	£199,465
Dudley	1,189	0.84%	119	141,927	£223,892
Stratford-on-Avon	1,137	1.7%	59	66,912	£387,411
Walsall	994	0.84%	119	118,396	£207,319
Rugby	944	1.83%	55	51,552	£277,393
Wychavon	916	1.48%	68	62,062	£318,610
Herefordshire	872	0.97%	104	90,257	£286,443
Warwick	857	1.23%	81	69,481	£361,113
Nuneaton and Bedworth	778	1.27%	79	61,246	£233,519
Stafford	767	1.2%	83	63,934	£246,366
Telford and Wrekin	767	0.91%	109	83,883	£218,397
Staffordshire Moorlands	735	1.63%	61	45,127	£210,370
Worcester	684	1.43%	70	47,701	£254,272
East Staffordshire	677	1.21%	83	56,035	£221,158
Malvern Hills	663	1.72%	58	38,600	£341,585
Newcastle-under-Lyme	614	1.05%	95	58,483	£195,831
Solihull	536	0.56%	179	95,825	£335,368
Lichfield	465	0.95%	106	49,121	£333,858
South Staffordshire	418	0.85%	118	49,306	£306,405
Wyre Forest	415	0.85%	118	48,856	£236,700
North Warwickshire	386	1.3%	77	29,677	£262,838
Cannock Chase	378	0.82%	122	46,061	£219,618
Bromsgrove	375	0.87%	115	43,123	£326,649
Redditch	288	0.76%	132	37,938	£240,350
Tamworth	214	0.61%	163	34,968	£224,925

East of England

Local authority	Empty homes	Vacancy rate	1 in X empty	Total homes	Avg house price
Luton	1,415	1.66%	60	85,285	£283,504
Central Bedfordshire	1,405	1.05%	95	133,987	£352,671
King's Lynn and West Norfolk	1,378	1.82%	55	75,804	£274,074
East Suffolk	1,262	1.03%	97	122,436	£285,534
Braintree	1,246	1.76%	57	70,821	£331,499
Tendring	969	1.29%	78	75,338	£271,628
South Cambridgeshire	958	1.3%	77	73,678	£450,557
Peterborough	947	1.04%	96	90,945	£232,821
Bedford	867	1.08%	93	80,510	£321,021
West Suffolk	796	0.95%	106	84,069	£304,913
Epping Forest	723	1.24%	81	58,404	£534,927
South Norfolk	716	1.07%	94	67,165	£314,701
Breckland	672	1.02%	98	65,656	£268,997
Basildon	655	0.82%	122	80,058	£359,008
North Norfolk	653	1.15%	87	56,598	£303,175
Huntingdonshire	639	0.77%	131	83,461	£305,846
Southend-on-Sea	630	0.76%	132	83,239	£322,247
Thurrock	620	0.88%	113	70,201	£326,605
Norwich	617	0.89%	112	69,167	£233,757
Colchester	616	0.71%	140	86,281	£304,794
Great Yarmouth	599	1.19%	84	50,157	£218,170
Chelmsford	589	0.72%	138	81,521	£376,376
Brentwood	579	1.64%	61	35,367	£507,764
Hertsmere	563	1.23%	81	45,870	£540,640
East Cambridgeshire	539	1.31%	76	41,131	£345,041
Broadland	538	0.86%	116	62,318	£319,439
Welwyn Hatfield	531	1.05%	96	50,759	£436,565
Dacorum	524	0.77%	129	67,833	£463,782
East Hertfordshire	517	0.77%	131	67,566	£450,374
North Hertfordshire	485	0.81%	123	59,869	£415,305
Harlow	481	1.19%	84	40,485	£321,181
Castle Point	461	1.16%	86	39,593	£362,331
Fenland	459	0.96%	104	47,856	£224,872
St Albans	455	0.72%	139	63,254	£651,451
Uttlesford	448	1.11%	90	40,449	£458,874
Mid Suffolk	432	0.86%	116	50,003	£316,262
Watford	425	0.99%	101	43,061	£403,413
Ipswich	423	0.68%	147	62,346	£222,486
Babergh	388	0.88%	114	44,083	£331,901
Cambridge	380	0.63%	160	60,739	£514,897
Rochford	326	0.85%	117	38,232	£402,820
Maldon	290	0.95%	105	30,392	£388,146
Broxbourne	271	0.64%	156	42,244	£401,319
Stevenage	252	0.66%	152	38,395	£308,422
Three Rivers	240	0.61%	163	39,092	£577,205

South East

Local authority	Empty homes	Vacancy rate	1 in X empty	Total homes	Avg house price
Brighton and Hove	1,944	1.43%	70	135,741	£423,550
Buckinghamshire	1,732	0.73%	137	237,840	£473,328
Thanet	1,185	1.7%	59	69,777	£268,930
Medway	1,155	0.95%	105	121,224	£296,606
Southampton	1,002	0.9%	111	111,257	£244,863
Milton Keynes	996	0.79%	126	125,540	£325,163
Canterbury	953	1.33%	75	71,862	£348,596
Portsmouth	950	1.01%	99	94,111	£254,852
Folkestone and Hythe	943	1.76%	57	53,670	£312,914
Guildford	851	1.36%	73	62,447	£524,300
Isle of Wight	823	1.13%	89	73,078	£255,165
West Oxfordshire	810	1.51%	66	53,742	£410,705
Hastings	764	1.72%	58	44,375	£249,968
Dover	762	1.37%	73	55,689	£292,636
Oxford	739	1.17%	86	63,390	£474,136
Ashford	697	1.18%	85	59,245	£341,735
New Forest	694	0.83%	120	83,382	£388,955
Waverley	688	1.2%	83	57,335	£551,031
Fareham	666	1.3%	77	51,067	£332,562
Surrey Heath	645	1.67%	60	38,624	£443,417
Basingstoke and Deane	626	0.77%	130	81,399	£359,227
Maidstone	624	0.8%	126	78,348	£358,364
Reading	621	0.81%	124	77,105	£353,250
Windsor and Maidenhead	616	0.91%	109	67,391	£582,952
Arun	605	0.76%	131	79,342	£333,168
Mid Sussex	588	0.84%	119	70,037	£440,074
West Berkshire	565	0.78%	127	71,968	£395,553
Wealden	552	0.74%	135	74,592	£407,578
Elmbridge	548	0.91%	109	59,940	£715,580
Tunbridge Wells	521	0.99%	101	52,689	£463,214
South Oxfordshire	509	0.76%	131	66,919	£484,364
Swale	501	0.75%	134	67,235	£300,055
Vale of White Horse	501	0.78%	129	64,416	£397,509
Bracknell Forest	500	0.92%	109	54,599	£405,725
Wokingham	472	0.63%	159	74,902	£499,949
Lewes	471	1%	100	47,222	£370,278
Reigate and Banstead	466	0.72%	139	64,821	£482,741
Cherwell	458	0.64%	157	72,039	£362,035
Worthing	445	0.86%	117	51,942	£309,198
East Hampshire	444	0.79%	127	56,411	£440,186
Runnymede	439	1.12%	90	39,372	£484,565
Eastbourne	434	0.87%	115	49,828	£259,479
Tonbridge and Malling	413	0.72%	138	57,089	£400,275
Spelthorne	412	0.92%	108	44,594	£435,299
Woking	412	0.93%	108	44,495	£448,516
Horsham	395	0.59%	169	66,667	£429,636
Sevenoaks	363	0.69%	145	52,540	£516,018
Eastleigh	339	0.55%	180	61,113	£327,813
Rother	336	0.72%	139	46,836	£343,157
Adur	329	1.14%	88	28,940	£377,300
Slough	311	0.54%	184	57,231	£342,709
Test Valley	311	0.53%	189	58,740	£378,571
Mole Valley	296	0.75%	134	39,566	£547,112
Gravesham	285	0.63%	158	44,978	£355,108
Winchester	278	0.47%	211	58,576	£502,974
Gosport	267	0.71%	142	37,816	£230,917
Dartford	253	0.5%	199	50,297	£362,339
Epsom and Ewell	237	0.71%	140	33,272	£544,483
Havant	236	0.41%	243	57,266	£311,551
Hart	233	0.54%	184	42,921	£465,740
Chichester	216	0.35%	284	61,358	£449,718
Rushmoor	216	0.51%	197	42,626	£309,560
Tandridge	165	0.43%	231	38,137	£506,886
Crawley	157	0.33%	301	47,253	£314,944

South West

Local authority	Empty homes	Vacancy rate	1 in X empty	Total homes	Avg house price
Cornwall	3,092	1.08%	93	286,043	£293,037
Somerset	2,406	0.89%	113	271,342	£282,374
Wiltshire	2,253	0.97%	103	232,531	£331,255
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	2,058	1.08%	92	190,034	£328,453
Bristol	1,773	0.84%	120	212,105	£355,756
Dorset	1,595	0.85%	117	186,917	£332,924
Torbay	1,471	2.14%	47	68,736	£237,377
Cotswold	839	1.82%	55	46,109	£444,114
Bath and North East Somerset	833	0.96%	104	86,776	£410,413
Swindon	794	0.78%	128	101,924	£264,011
Plymouth	786	0.64%	157	123,273	£214,209
South Gloucestershire	756	0.59%	170	128,458	£339,008
Stroud	680	1.2%	83	56,756	£337,088
Cheltenham	643	1.12%	89	57,469	£332,411
North Somerset	628	0.62%	162	101,673	£308,678
Exeter	571	0.93%	107	61,221	£295,274
Forest of Dean	507	1.24%	81	40,886	£280,748
East Devon	501	0.67%	149	74,747	£350,786
Gloucester	476	0.79%	126	59,968	£241,024
North Devon	476	0.97%	103	49,109	£287,064
Teignbridge	402	0.62%	163	65,355	£299,723
South Hams	388	0.82%	122	47,476	£384,343
Mid Devon	330	0.86%	117	38,466	£295,085
Torridge	325	0.95%	106	34,321	£274,849
Tewkesbury	277	0.61%	165	45,783	£334,361
West Devon	207	0.76%	132	27,326	£306,046
Isles of Scilly	30	2.55%	39	1,176	£0

Historical empty homes data for England

How long-term empty homes in England have changed each year since 2013.

Year	Empty homes	Total homes	Vacancy rate	Avg house price	Est. value of empty homes (£bn)
2013	232,600	23,311,646	1%	£178,011	41.4
2014	222,160	23,465,947	0.95%	£191,986	42.7
2015	217,652	23,653,120	0.92%	£207,315	45.1
2016	215,139	23,862,835	0.9%	£218,965	47.1
2017	216,921	24,076,200	0.9%	£228,837	49.6
2018	227,953	24,298,200	0.94%	£232,616	53
2019	237,594	24,549,014	0.97%	£234,237	55.7
2020	278,470	24,761,613	1.12%	£250,168	69.7
2021	246,644	24,987,468	0.99%	£267,793	66
2022	256,827	25,225,481	1.02%	£288,198	74
2023	269,395	25,462,055	1.06%	£278,664	75.1
2024	272,257	25,675,421	1.06%	£290,564	79.1

Empty Homes Data Explorer Notes

Notes referencing the data usage for the tables above:

Empty homes data source - Council Taxbase Statistics
Sold hour price data source - HM Land Registry UK House Price Index

Data for (1) is using:

Table 1.01 Total Number of Dwellings on Valuation List (Line 1)
Table 1.16. Number of dwellings that are classed as empty by October of that year and have been for more than 6 months (Line 16)

Data for (2) is using:

Average sold house price for 'all property types' by location
Date used for sold house price data is December of each year to match the reporting of the dataset for the Council Taxbase statistics that is also released on December of each year.

Assumptions:

There is no perfect way to estimate property values as no dataset is publicly available with exact property addresses and individual valuations. So a simple approach has been used of taking the average sold house price x number of empty homes. This gives a directionally correct estimate for total asset values for the area.

Conclusion

What stands out across the years is that the empty-home problem has not eased. After dipping in the mid-2010s, the count has climbed back to 272,257, close to its 2020 peak, and the latest year added another 2,862 empty homes even as England built 213,366 more homes overall. Building more housing, on its own, has not brought the empty-home total down. Those homes would house roughly 650,000 people, and at today's prices they hold an estimated £79 billion in idle property.

They are both a housing resource and a community challenge. The national 1.06% vacancy rate is only an average; the regional and local-authority tables above show where the problem is most concentrated, with the heaviest rates in parts of the North East and North West.

This empty homes data is a free resource for local residents, academics, local authorities, housing organisations, community groups and journalists working to address housing utilisation across England.

Bringing empty homes back into use is beneficial to everyone in the local community. Turning an empty building into a home can help provide

New housing for families or individuals
Income for the local council with council tax
Income for local trades to bring the home back into use
Improved community street scene and is less likely to be further damaged and leading to crime

For an insight into the actual solutions available at the local authority level, below are reviews on what grants, funding and lease schemes are available in each local council and authority to help owners bring these homes back into use for residents.

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