You’d think, given the general shortage of housing in the UK (which, according to Zoopla, has driven a 6 percent average rise in rents), that the country wouldn’t have many empty properties. But did you know that hundreds of thousands of properties sit entirely empty across the UK? Well, they do.
The UK actually has upwards of 760,000 individual dwellings sitting empty. To locate Britain’s abandoned property capital, a study from insurance company Alan Boswell looked at the total number of empty homes and compared it with the total population.
The study revealed that Gwynedd in northwest Wales is the UK’s empty home hotspot, with 5,286 abandoned properties per 100,000 people. The county is best known for its alluring picture-perfect views across Snowdonia National Park, and it boasts beaches, mountainous terrain and even a UNESCO World Heritage Site (the castles and town walls of King Edward). In other words, it’s a pretty sweet place to live – and the average house price is apparently just £136,000.
According to Alan Boswell, the place with the second-highest number of abandoned homes per 100,000 is Argyll and Bute in western Scotland (with 4,887), while third is Pembrokeshire in southwest Wales (with 4,331).
Here are the 10 places with the most abandoned properties, according to the study.
Areas of the UK with the most empty and abandoned properties
- Gwynedd, Wales
- Argyll and Bute, Scotland
- Pembrokeshire, Wales
- Isle of Anglesey, Wales
- Ceredigion, Wales
- Highland, Scotland
- Blackpool, England
- Kensington and Chelsea, London, England
- Liverpool, England
- Camden, London, England
Did you see that this London borough has the most empty properties?
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