Empty Homes in Scotland

The Scottish Government, on behalf of Scottish Ministers, appointed Indigo House Group Ltd (Indigo House) to undertake an independent audit of its long-term empty homes policy and interventions. The findings of this auditwill help inform how commitments on empty homes within the Housing to 2040 Strategy can best be met.

The total number of empty homes in Scotland estimated from council tax records across all categories has increased by 4% since 2008, but over the last decade the increase has slowed to 2%. However, over the last decade long-term empty properties over 6 months have increased by 68.4%, the number of second homes has reduced substantially by 40.2%, while unoccupied exemptions have increased
slightly by 3.6%.

The report notes that the increase long term empty homes may be the result of changes in reporting. Based on these figures empty homes account for 1.6% of all dwellings in Scotland.

The full report can be found here.