The housing crisis in London has only continued to deepen in recent years.
Rising rates of homelessness combined with unaffordability and low house-building rates across the region, have created a perfect storm in the capital.
House-building in London’s private housing sector has fallen by 84% since 2015, with only 5,547 residential homes built in 2025, compared to 33,782 in 2015.
The government has only managed to build 8% of its 176,000 two year target of new homes in London.
But there is another aspect of residential properties in London that seems to be on the rise.
Empty homes, deemed as vacant dwellings, have significantly risen in the capital over the past year – London has seen a 12.5% YoY increase of vacant dwellings over the 2024/25 period.
The capital has also seen a 23.9% increase in long-term vacant dwellings YoY – the highest region in the UK by far.
Within London boroughs, there are some areas which have seen an even higher percentage increase.
Wandsworth, for example, has had the number of long-term vacant dwellings almost quadruple with an increase of 382.48%.
Local authority vacant housing is not contributing to this increase, having decreased over the same period.
And while housing associations, the privately owned, not-for-profit organizations that own and manage homes like local authorities, have also seen their vacant dwellings rise over this period, their contribution to the overall number is small (14.39%).
This suggests that the rise in vacant and long-term vacant dwellings has been caused by properties which are privately-owned.
In the eyes of the government and local councils, a vacant property is a residential property that is devoid of any personal items (furniture, residents etc), for over 30 to 60 days.
This is unlike an ‘unoccupied dwelling’, where a residential property is fully furnished, but the occupant may be temporarily away.
There are many reasons for a property to lay vacant.
Sometimes there are ongoing renovations, or the property is waiting to clear probate.
But a property becomes long-term vacant when this period extends to 12 continuous months, or longer.
These long-term vacant dwellings are subject to substantial council tax.
In Wandsworth, a long-term vacant property can be subject to 100% council tax premium if unoccupied between 1 to 5 years, or even up to 300% for those left empty for over 10 years.
They are treated differently to an official second home, for instance, where the premium is 100% extra.
Exemptions are sometimes applied, if for example a property is actively marketed for sale, or the occupant is a member of the armed forces.
Chris Bailey is the Director of Policy and Campaigns at Action on Empty Homes, the only public organisation whose sole focus is empty homes.
The organisation has influenced a number of policies in the area, including campaigning to allow local authorities to apply tax premiums left empty for 1 year, instead of 2.
Reacting to this new data, Bailey suggests that London is suffering more from the ‘unsold new build’, than other places in the country.
He said: ‘There is a sense in which we are literally building empty homes, and certainly not building the homes that Londoners need.’
While Bailey stresses that he would not want to see homes taken away from people who have legitimate reasons for their staying empty, he would also like to see ‘stronger reach’ for councils.
Action on Empty Homes helped to campaign for the creation of the Empty Dwelling Management Order (EDMO) powers for councils in 2004, which give local authorities the right to possess a property without affecting the right to ownership.
But Bailey says these are ‘never used now’.
He said: ‘Everything we’re doing is too small, too slow, and too late.
‘Meanwhile we’ve just been accumulating vacant properties.’
Wandsworth Council was approached for comment, with no response.
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