Empty houses are a hot topic right now. This is primarily due to the fact that, as per the charity Shelter, “around 1.8 Million households are on waiting lists for housing”.

Add to this the anticipated delay in the process of any and all building projects during the recession and the issue may get worse before it gets better.

According to the Guardian, councils of several hard-hit regions are resorting to a hardcore win/win remedy: interest-free loans for actual renovations. 

Cornwall Plans Include Loans

In Cornwall, a part of the country with one of the largest housing shortages, first-time home buyers who purchase homes that have been vacant for over six months (and are therefore deemed long-term vacancies by local council) will receive the funds only after the purchase process is complete.  (In this manner, the monies would not be able to be applied towards a deposit.)

Also, current owners can cash in on some of this aid.  Loans of up to £15,000—again, with 0% interest—are available to owners of two-bed properties if they’ve been vacant for at least six months.  One-bed homes stand to receive half of that, at £7,500.  Caveat #1: they’ve got to need “substantial work to make them habitable”, notes the Guardian.  Caveat #2:  the now-refurbished homes must be made available to someone on the council’s waiting list of 18,931 households.

If the loans aren’t snatched up, a compulsory order of purchase is next on the agenda for long-term vacancies throughout the affected areas.

Cornwall isn’t the only region holding out the loan enticements. Kent, the Bristol city councils and some Scottish authorities either have adopted similar strategies or are looking into such schemes.

In a bid to be realistic, the Cornwall authority admits there may not be many takers.  They reason that, even with the added draw of a loan that’s provided to improve the property, “few lending companies are willing to lend to buyers of such homes”.  Note:  Insurance Protector Group is among a select group that does provide such cover. Do a Google search to locate others. 

Mansions “Unloved”, As Well

Standard-sized houses and apartments aren’t the only properties affected.

Two years ago, the Guardian ran a story on “unloved” unlived-in mansions, many of which were left to crumble by offshore owners who are using the property merely as an asset.

Mansions may represent only a small slice of the pie, but, due to their size, these are usually the most obvious–and sometimes the most distressing– to neighbours.

“…[A] pair of seven-storey mansions in Park Lane across the road from Hyde Park” in otherwise lovely Mayfair, London, notes the Guardian piece, stick out like a sore thumb.

“I feel it is a tragedy,” says a council official. “Many of these buildings have wonderful histories, and are part of our heritage. For them to be left vacant and unloved for a such a long time, pawns in a real-life game of Monopoly, is disgraceful.”

An interesting aside is that, according to the Guardian, “a council tax exemption on any dwellings that are vacant for up to six months” doesn’t help the situation, offering an incentive for property to stay vacant.

Vacant mansions are, of course, only the tip of the iceberg.

There are 920,000—almost a 1 million—vacant homes across the UK, per Empty Homes. Because they’ve been vacant for so long, some—as many as hundreds of thousands–are being termed “long-term empty”.  

About the loans, apparently there haven’t been enough takers.   Cornwall council is threatening to hit long-term property owners with an enforced purchase.  The Guardian states that “if homeowners refuse to take advantage of the authority’s loans, and then fail to bring properties back into use with their own money, the council will consider using compulsory purchase powers.”

How You Can Help

If you aren’t in a position to revive a sleeping property but want to help those who can investigate the situation to get a clear picture of what’s involved, this might interest you:  the Guardian is looking to receive photos of abandoned houses, and other information, to study the impact the blight has on neighbours and to “see what went wrong”.  Send your story and data to homes.guardian@googlemail.com, putting Empty homes in the subject area. 

Whether you can help salvage an empty house, yourself…or send in details that might help flesh out the issues at stake…you, as a member of the housing community, can always make a difference.

-David Slade

- Photograph courtesy of  Jim Dyson/Getty Images – the Guardian.