The lettings and estate agency in Scotland said that the announcement by Housing secretary, Mairi McAllan, that she was acting to prevent “unacceptable” levels of empty homes in Scotland is worthy but will not come close to resolving the current housing emergency.

Ms McAllan said that she was going to fund more empty homes officers to bring privately owned houses back into use. These officers work on the £2m a year Scottish Government investment in the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership (SEHP).

This organisation seeks to identify empty homes and encourage owners to bring these properties onto the market. There are already empty homes officers across many Scottish councils, and the organisation has brought just under 11,000 homes to the market in the fifteen years since it was established.

Figures published by the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership (SEHP) stated that in 2023/24 there were 46,217 homes empty for six months in Scotland, but this figure falls to 28,280 for homes that have been vacant for more than a year. The greatest number of homes empty for more than a year was in Highland which had 3,334, Edinburgh was next with 2,751, and Aberdeen had 2,615.

At the other end of the scale East Renfrewshire only had sixty-two vacant homes for six months and is not listed on the official statistics for longer than a year presumably indicating there were none for the full year. Clackmannanshire had 102 and East Dunbartonshire 220 vacant for more than 12 months.

Ms McAllan said: “Bringing homes back into use is a vital part of our plan to tackle the housing emergency – when too many families are struggling to find somewhere to live, it is unacceptable to me that so many houses are lying empty for long periods.”

According to SEHP the main reason for homes remaining vacant are difficulty contacting the owner; ongoing repairs; owners unsure of end use; unwilling to sell or rent; property inherited; repairs stalled for financial reasons; with the remaining reasons due to delays in the handling estates, entering a care home, legal issues, and others.

A further argument is often made that second home ownership is part of the housing problem, but the latest Scottish Government figures show that there are now just 21,606 second homes in Scotland representing a 10% fall year on year to 2024 and the largest fall in numbers in a decade. Second homes account for just 1% of all housing in Scotland.

David Alexander, the chief executive officer of DJ Alexander Scotland, commented: “There is little doubt that regenerating and reviving homes which have been empty for a substantial period of time can be beneficial for an area. A property that is an eyesore in a village, town or city can only be improved by renovation.”

“The concern is that by conflating the issue of the current housing shortage in Scotland with almost just over 28,000 homes empty for a year misses the point that even if all of these houses are put on the market immediately this will do little to alleviate the accumulated problems the country currently faces. In addition, a property being vacant for 12 months can mean almost nothing as this can be for multiple reasons as conceded by SEHP.

“Estates can take a long time to be satisfied so many of these empty homes may not be in use for perfectly legitimate reasons. There could many other reasons these properties are empty. People may be working abroad, they may be in hospital, in a care home, travelling, retired, and living elsewhere with relatives or a whole host of reasons which result in a property being left empty for a prolonged period of time.”

He added: “The concern is whether by focusing on empty and second homes this is a distraction from the larger issue of the need to build more houses in the social and private sectors.”

“While the aims may be laudable, this is not the solution to the current housing emergency. The answer is to increase the volume of new home building which would resolve our current housing issues long before reducing the number of empty and second homes and holiday lets would make a small dent in the overall shortages. These are sticking plaster solutions to a gaping wound problem. The crucial factor in this is that reducing the number of empty and second homes, and holiday lets gives the appearance of doing something without costing very much to implement. These are policies which look as if they are the answer to housing needs, but the reality is that only by resolving our current low housebuilding levels will we start to see a reduction in the high number of people seeking to buy or rent a home in the future.”