South Ayrshire Council to tackle empty homes through five-year strategy

There are approximately 45,000 long-term empty private properties throughout Scotland. In South Ayrshire, more than 800 private properties are currently registered as empty, and just over 400 of these have been lying vacant for more than one year.

The Empty Homes Strategy 2025-2030 details some of the barriers to bringing private properties back into use. It also highlights the importance of the council’s empty homes officers who engage with owners and offer practical advice, assistance, and incentives.

Some of the incentives offered by the council to encourage owners to bring property back into use include:

• VAT discounts on eligible works
• Matchmaker scheme to assist selling the property in its current condition
• Empty Homes Loan funding
• Strategic Council Buy Backs (on some ex-council residential properties)
• Discount scheme, suppliers who have offered a discount to empty homeowners for renovations.

Councillor Martin Kilbride, policy lead for housing and property services at South Ayrshire Council, said: “There are too many private properties lying empty. Bringing these homes back into use is important as we look to meet housing demand across South Ayrshire.

“There is currently no legislation to force owners to act, so we are offering a range of incentives which we hope will encourage them. We know the challenges involved, so we’ve set ourselves a challenging but achievable target of bringing 19 empty private homes back into use each year.”