Glasgow City Council’s Empty Homes project has brought more than 3,000 long-vacant properties back into use as homes for individuals and families, with 94% of these recoveries achieved since the launch of the council’s Empty Homes Strategy in April 2019.

This Strategy is very important in a number of ways: it adds to the housing supply in Glasgow to a significant extent during the city’s current Housing Emergency, contributes to the regeneration of neighbourhoods, and tackles blight in communities as empty homes can become eyesores and targets for vandalism.  There is also a straightforward economic rationale: it is significantly cheaper to renovate or refurbish an empty home than it is to build a new one.

Empty Homes are described as privately-owned residential properties that have been lying vacant for six months or more due to a range of reasons, including mortgage default and repossessions; deceased or untraceable owners; property title issues; and properties which have fallen into a state of disrepair.

The key aims of the council’s Empty Homes Strategy are to:

  • increase the availability of housing stock to meet demand, providing good-quality accommodation for those who need it;
  • identify opportunities for suitable housing for particular groups, such as larger families, homeless people, and those with a variety of support needs;
  • offer homeowners information and advice to help bring properties back into use;
  • safeguard the interest of tenement flat owners to facilitate common repairs work; and
  • tackle environmental and neighbourhood blight.

The council will also use CPO (compulsory purchase) powers in cases where owners cannot be traced or refuse to engage with the council’s Empty Homes team, and 74 homes have been brought back to use through CPOs as part of the strategy, with the vast majority of these being allocated to housing associations in the city for such as socially-rented homes.

Councillor Ruairi Kelly, Convener for Housing, Development and Land Use at Glasgow City Council, said: “While the figure of 3,000 empty homes being brought back to life in Glasgow is a landmark figure, what is really important here is that thousands of people and families now have homes to stay in that they would otherwise not, and that city neighbourhoods are being improved.  In saying that, there are still far too many empty homes in the city, so we will continue our work on what has been a very successful strategy so far and ask owners of empty homes to get in touch with the council to get assistance in selling for private sale or to local housing associations.”

There are still around 3,000 empty homes in private ownership across Glasgow, with around 2,000 of these having been empty for more than 12 months.

In response to the city’s Housing Emergency and to tackle the current housing shortage, the council is launching a grant scheme to encourage owners to bring their properties back into use. Where they are unable to do so, the council will put owners in touch with housing associations who would be interested in acquiring the properties for social housing. We would urge all empty homeowners to now take action to tackle the current housing crisis.  Information on the grant scheme can be found at Empty Homes – Glasgow City Council and owners interested in selling their property can email the council at emptyhomes@glasgow.gov.uk.

Owners are asked to contact the above email address if they are not looking to occupy their current property or leave it unoccupied for any length of time.  Alternatively, if people own a residential property in Glasgow and are simply looking to sell it then they can contact Glasgow City Council at NRSHousingAcquisitions@glasgow.gov.uk for assistance and the team can put them in touch with a Housing Association who could acquire the property.