London's empty homes catastrophe must be addressed on the path to solving the wider housing crisis in the capital, the London Assembly has been told. In 2025, there were 105,138 empty homes in London - 2.7 per cent of the total number of homes in London as a whole. This represents an 81 per cent increase on 2016, when Sir Sadiq Khan took office.
Council-owned empty homes rise 66%
Around 12 per cent of these are owned by local authorities directly - a higher proportion than any other UK region - with the number of council-owned homes left empty up by 66 per cent since 2016. This appears contrary to the aims of the 2021 London Plan, which states that 'boroughs should promote efficient use of existing housing stock to reduce the number of vacant and under-occupied dwellings'. It states that 'the Mayor will support boroughs with identified issues of new homes being left empty, sometimes known as 'buy to leave' properties, to put in place mechanisms which seek to ensure new homes are occupied'.
London Housing Strategy goals
Meanwhile, the London Housing Strategy released in 2018 states that 'the Mayor will address public concerns about empty homes and the impact of housing being bought for investment, particularly by overseas buyers, on the availability of homes for Londoners'.
Last Wednesday (June 10) the London Assembly Housing Committee was told that City Hall must intervene more directly to help councils acquire, retrofit and fill empty properties. Sam Bloomer, Policy Officer at Shelter, said doing so is a 'cost-effective, green and fast' way to boost the affordable homes supply in the capital.
Retrofitting empty homes: 'Fast and green'
'You can retrofit and convert an empty home in eight months,' he told Assembly Members, noting that it was also a quicker route for authorities to start taking in rental income. Panellists suggested that a significant proportion of empty homes have never actually been lived in, but built by developers and priced at a figure that ordinary Londoners could never afford.
London an 'outlier' in empty homes
Chris Bailey, Director of Policy and Campaigns, Action on Empty Homes, said: 'London is a bit of an outlier when it comes to long-term empty homes. Long term empties have gone up by more than 50 per cent nationally - but in London they have more than doubled, by 138 per cent. London is a regional outlier. Ten years ago, the most empty homes were in the North East and North West - now it's London.'
'We're in the bizarre situation in London that there are empty new build homes - we are building homes that are too expensive, but the demand is for affordable housing. Empty homes are not a silver bullet, but they are one lever we can pull. If less homes spend less time empty, you have more supply.'
Developers stalling sites
He added: 'Where developers are stalling sites and not selling on homes, that's where we want to see councils stepping in and intervening to get those homes built.' He suggested Londoners seeing expensive newbuilds being constructed in their local area are losing trust in the system.
'People on a waiting list seeing these homes go up - entirely out of reach for ordinary people, with such little social rent being delivered - you can't overstate that impact, and it breeds distrust with the political system and of new developments. It ultimately ends up with negative impacts on individuals and creates huge barriers for the Government's housing targets.'
City Hall's housing targets
City Hall has struggled to meet its housing targets, both in terms of building affordable homes for social rent and laying the groundwork for the private sector to increase the capital's housing supply themselves. While not a 'silver bullet', Mr Bloomer said, bringing empty homes back into use would be an effective method in chipping away at the Mayor's goals.
'We've seen serious effort from the Mayor and councils to deliver social housing - if we think what we can do to tackle that crisis, increasing housing supply is not effective,' he said. 'Levers to bring back empty homes into use would be welcome.'
Five per cent of empty homes could match social housing delivery
Tara Clinton, an associate at consultants Arup noted that bringing just five per cent of empty homes back into use would be equivalent to the current construction rate for social housing. She said: 'The opportunity is often compared to the overall target - while that is valid, it's important to compare it against current rates of delivery.'
'We looked at what difference five per cent [usage] of empty homes could make - we found that 13,500 would be unlocked, compared to the delivery of social homes, which was 13,900 nationally. Empty homes could be very interesting when it comes to diversified delivery alongside new housing.'
Mayor's response
City Hall declined to comment, but pointed to the expansion of the Mayor's Homes off the Streets programme, in which he vowed to refurbish up to 500 empty homes as part of his wider strategy to end Rough Sleeping in London.
