London home to £41bn empty properties despite soaring buyer demand
Some £41bn worth of empty homes are sitting vacant across the London market despite increased buyer demand.
An estimated £200bn worth of homes are vacant across Britain, a 2.1 per cent increase on the previous alone.
Estate agents Barrows and Forrester analysed government data to reveal that London is home to 80,295 empty properties with an estimated £41bn.
The city has marked the largest annual increase in vacant homes, up 12 per cent in the past year.
Although some would argue there has never been a better time to sell, the level and value of vacant properties at the moment was “quite staggering, to say the least,” according to James Forrester, managing director of Barrows and Forrester.
“Of course, there will be varying reasons as to why these homes are empty but they could certainly go some way in addressing the current housing crisis and bringing a much needed stock boost to the market,” he added.
Across the whole of England, there were some 665,628 vacant dwellings, currently worth an estimated £190bn.
It comes as fresh data from Rightmove has revealed London to be the most searched for location, surpassing Cornwall as the top spot for potential buyers.
House prices increased by more than £24,500 last year, the largest annual cash rise since March 2003, it was reported earlier this month.
The average UK property price reached a new record high of £276,091 in 2021, rising 9.8 per cent, according to Halifax’s House Price Index.
Once more, London was the weakest performing region for annual inflation by long way (2.1 per cent), although it did mark a strong quarterly rise in prices (2.9 per cent).