The UK has almost no empty homes
Scotland has a total vacancy rate of just 3.0% — one of the lowest in the OECD. England's is similar at 2.7%. France and Germany both have vacancy rates of around 8%. Japan's is 13.6%. The countries people point to as having better, more affordable housing tend to have more empty homes, not fewer.
This is not a coincidence. A well-functioning housing market needs a buffer of available homes. When not enough homes are built — when supply falls short of demand — renters and buyers have no choice but to accept whatever is offered, at whatever price, and vacancy rates fall. The UK's near-zero vacancy rate is a sign of a market under extreme pressure, not a pool of untapped supply waiting to be released.
Vacancy rates exclude seasonal and holiday homes where data allows disaggregation. Scotland data from Scottish Government (March 2025, total vacancy rate); other countries from national statistical institutes via OECD.
Each dot is a US state. Hover to see details. Vacancy rate = share of all housing units that are vacant. Price-to-income ratio = median home price divided by median household income.
Empty homes are empty for a reason
The Scottish Government's own audit of empty homes, conducted in partnership with Shelter Scotland, found that the most common reasons homes sit empty in Scotland are that the previous owner died, that renovations stalled, or that the owner moved without selling. Other common causes include tenancies ending without a replacement tenant, and owners going into hospital or care.
These are not homes being hoarded. They are homes caught up in the ordinary friction of life — probate, disrepair, circumstance. There is no secret reserve of housing waiting to be unlocked.
Some vacancy is normal and necessary
Even in a perfectly functioning housing market, some homes are always empty. Homes between owners during a sale. Homes being renovated. Homes left by a recently deceased owner going through probate. Homes temporarily between tenants. A vacancy rate of zero would mean a completely frozen market where nobody could move.
The Scottish Empty Homes Partnership, which has been working to bring empty homes back into use since 2010, managed around 700 per year for most of its existence. In its best ever year, 2024–25, it brought 2,066 homes back into use across the whole of Scotland. Glasgow alone needs thousands of new homes every year just to keep pace with demand. Even a perfectly executed empty homes strategy operating at its maximum ever rate would cover a fraction of one city's annual need.
Empty homes are a symptom, not a cause
The reason the UK has so few empty homes is precisely because housing is so scarce and expensive. When a property becomes vacant, it is snapped up almost immediately — because demand so massively outstrips supply. The high opportunity cost of leaving a home empty keeps vacancy rates near zero.
Pointing to empty homes as a solution to the housing crisis is like pointing to the shortage of hospital beds as evidence that we don't need to build more hospitals. The shortage is the problem.
Scotland and England have among the lowest vacancy rates in the developed world, at 3.0% and 2.7% respectively. Countries with higher vacancy rates — France (8%), Germany (8%), Japan (13.6%) — consistently have more affordable housing. The data points in one direction: more supply, including more vacant homes, correlates with lower prices.
The most common reasons homes sit empty in Scotland are the previous owner dying, the property being purchased with the intention of renovation that then stalled, and the owner moving without selling. Between 2010 and March 2023, the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership brought a total of 9,014 empty properties back into use — around 700 per year. Read the audit →
Where we stand
YIMBY Glasgow understands that a well-functioning housing market will have higher vacancy rates than the UK has today. More empty homes is a sign of a healthy market, not a broken one — it means renters and buyers have choices, and landlords have to compete for tenants. Focusing on empty homes as a solution to the housing crisis will not work and is a serious distraction from the planning reforms and new housebuilding that would actually make a difference.