Almost all (94%) of the properties have been brought back to productive use since April 2019, when Glasgow City Council launched its Empty Homes Strategy.

The local authority said its strategy is very important in a number of ways. It adds to the housing supply in Glasgow to a significant extent during the city’s current Housing Emergency, contributes to the regeneration of neighbourhoods, and tackles blight in communities as empty homes can become eyesores and targets for vandalism. There is also a straightforward economic rationale: it is significantly cheaper to renovate or refurbish an empty home than it is to build a new one.

Empty homes are described as privately-owned residential properties that have been lying vacant for six months or more due to a range of reasons, including mortgage default and repossessions; deceased or untraceable owners; property title issues; and properties which have fallen into a state of disrepair.

The key aims of the council’s Empty Homes Strategy are to:

• increase the availability of housing stock to meet demand, providing good-quality accommodation for those who need it;
• identify opportunities for suitable housing for particular groups, such as larger families, homeless people, and those with a variety of support needs;
• offer homeowners information and advice to help bring properties back into use;
• safeguard the interest of tenement flat owners to facilitate common repairs work; and
• tackle environmental and neighbourhood blight.

The council will also use CPO (compulsory purchase) powers in cases where owners cannot be traced or refuse to engage with the council’s Empty Homes team, and 74 homes have been brought back to use through CPOs as part of the strategy, with the vast majority of these being allocated to housing associations in the city for such as socially-rented homes.

Councillor Ruairi Kelly, convener for Housing, Development and Land Use at Glasgow City Council, said: “While the figure of 3,000 empty homes being brought back to life in Glasgow is a landmark figure, what is really important here is that thousands of people and families now have homes to stay in that they would otherwise not, and that city neighbourhoods are being improved.

“In saying that, there are still far too many empty homes in the city, so we will continue our work on what has been a very successful strategy so far and ask owners of empty homes to get in touch with the council to get assistance in selling for private sale or to local housing associations.”

There are still around 3,000 empty homes in private ownership across Glasgow, with around 2,000 of these having been empty for more than 12 months.

In response to the city’s Housing Emergency and to tackle the current housing shortage, the council is launching a grant scheme to encourage owners to bring their properties back into use. Where they are unable to do so, the council will put owners in touch with housing associations who would be interested in acquiring the properties for social housing.