One home in 25 across England sit empty, which equates to over a million.
Elliot Vure, sales director at Together, highlighted the issue as part of National Empty Homes Week, a yearly event organised by the charity Action on Empty Homes.
Vure said: “While the nation often focuses on building new homes, a large and often overlooked percentage of homes in England are already empty.
“However, there is a shortfall in local authority power and resources for identifying the empty homes and taking action on empty home complaints within councils. There are also barriers for prospective buyers, investors and landlords to accessing the right kind of finance once these properties are on the market.
“Traditional mortgage products often aren’t suitable for empty or dilapidated homes, especially where a property is deemed uninhabitable. That’s where specialist lending can play a vital role.
“As an industry we should be encouraging and supporting borrowers who are willing to take on vacant or neglected homes. That could mean greater flexibility on property conditions at purchase or exploring partnerships with local authorities where empty homes are a particular issue.”
Previous research from Together found that over half of Brits – 52% – pass by a deserted building every week.
The research also found that half of the public (49%) called for abandoned and derelict buildings in their hometowns to be revived for new purposes such as housing, business or retail.
Since 2022, Together has seen a 95% increase in the number of bridging loans the lender has funded, some of which will have been used to bring empty, run-down or otherwise ‘unmortgageable’ homes back into use.
