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Nearly a quarter of empty social homes in Scotland awaiting disposal, demolition or reconfiguration
A total of 4,884 homes were found empty across Scotland in February 2025, according to the latest data from the regulator, with 23% awaiting disposal, demolition or reconfiguration.
Nearly a quarter of empty social homes in Scotland awaiting disposal, demolition or reconfiguration #UKhousingA total of 4,884 homes were found empty across Scotland in February 2025, according to the latest data, with 23% awaiting disposal, demolition or reconfiguration #UKhousingThe findings come after the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) collected information on 308,806 social homes from all registered providers in February.
Of the total empty or void homes, 42% (or 2,064 homes) were what the SHR described as “normal, lettable self-contained homes”.
The remaining 58% were vacant for specific reasons such as being subject to insurance claims, awaiting major repairs, or being used as decants.
The primary reason for the high number of vacant homes is that 23%, or 1,158 properties, are awaiting disposal, demolition or reconfiguration.
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Landlords reported that utility companies were a major factor in delays, with properties remaining unoccupied for months due to issues such as meter resets, meter exchanges and clearing outstanding debt on meters.
These challenges, which often take weeks or months to resolve, render homes unlettable.
SHR’s report from last year indicated that the average time to relet empty homes was 39 days, an improvement from the previous year’s 44-day average.
In total, 1.6% of Scotland’s social housing is either unoccupied or void.
Glasgow City Council recorded the highest number of empty homes, with 1,651 self-contained dwellings sitting vacant. Inverclyde Council followed with 520 empty properties, while City of Edinburgh reported 334.
The data was gathered by the SHR on behalf of the Scottish government to provide an up-to-date overview of the number of empty social homes and explore the potential contribution in tackling the ongoing housing emergency.
The findings follow a call from 19 MPs in December 2024 to introduce a national empty homes strategy.
This latest report comes after the SHR revealed last month that Scottish social landlords spent a record £945m on the management and maintenance of homes in 2024.
On the most recent data, Michael Cameron, chief executive of the SHR, said: “We want to thank RSLs [registered social landlords] for providing this data to help inform the Scottish government’s proposed response to the housing emergency. We will next collect information on the number of empty homes/voids as part of the annual return on the charter to be submitted by all social landlords from April 2026.”
As thousand of homes sit empty, research from earlier this year examined how thousands of families across Scotland are “devastated” by the prospect of being stuck in overcrowded, insecure and expensive homes for many years as a result of the housing emergency.
The research by the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and Wheatley Group heard from people across Scotland on the devastating physical and mental health consequences of their prolonged wait for social housing.
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