Three Yorkshire cities including Leeds in the top ten for having highest number of empty homes

Local councils could help to solve the UK’s housing crisis by using property auctions as a modern-day version of compulsory purchase orders (CPOs), according to a leading auctions boss.

Rory Daly (pictured), chief executive of SDL Auctions, was talking after new research revealed more than 200,000 homes in England with a total value of £43 billion were lying empty, despite the desperate shortage of properties to rent and buy.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Daly explained that councils used to threaten empty property owners with CPOs but that this had become unworkable because there was no longer the public money available to fund such policies.

Instead, he argued, some councils were now starting to threaten court action unless property owners either refurbished the homes or put them up for sale in auctions, with special conditions to make them habitable within 12 months.

Mr Daly said: “All this focus on greenbelt and brownfield sites for new homes is staggering, given that the number of homes lying empty that could be occupied after refurbishment is not far away from a whole year’s worth of new build.

“In the old world, local authorities would enforce CPOs on properties not fit for occupation, but that doesn’t happen now because councils haven’t got the public money available.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“And yet simply trying to cajole owners of empty homes to get their properties into a fit state for occupation is also flawed because the owners often haven’t got the funds necessary to refurbish them.

“What some councils have started doing is to use SDL Auctions as an option for selling properties where nothing is happening.

“It’s like a modern day CPO: the council tells property owners to either do what we’ve asked you to do or use another option – sell your property in an auction.”

Mr Daly said SDL Auctions, one of the UK’s largest auction networks, had found that empty homes in desperate need of refurbishment had become the most popular properties in the auction sector.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And he said that this new way of forcing empty home-owners to act had already resulted in dozens of successful auctions for Wolverhampton City Council.

Mr Daly said: “What we’ve done with Wolverhampton Council is to enable them to take action with some really hazardous, anti-social properties where there was no other workable option.

“By using our property auctions, Wolverhampton has enabled properties to be sold to buyers who are in the market for refurbishing homes for buy-to-let or sale.”

Mr Daly stressed that the empty properties were put up for auction under special conditions that they had to be brought into a satisfactory habitable condition within 12 months.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He said: “On dozens of occasions this has solved a problem for all parties: the buyer gets a property they want to invest in; the owner avoids court action by the council, is relieved of what’s become a serious problem, and quickly receives its market worth.

“Most importantly, this new way of dealing with the empty homes problem can help to take the heat off what is a massive, national housing problem.”

According to the research*, Birmingham was the worst affected city outside of London with 4,397 empty homes worth an estimated £956m, followed by Bradford (3,944 homes worth £858 million) and Liverpool (3,449 homes worth £750 million).

The cities of Leeds, Sheffield, Sunderland, Wakefield, Doncaster, Blackburn and Bolton were also in the top ten for the highest number of empty homes, collectively worth more than another £2.5 billion.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Daly said that SDL Auctions – with auction sites in Birmingham, Cheshire and North Wales, Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Stoke, and Manchester – was happy to meet with other councils facing the same problems.

He added: “The market is currently falling over itself to buy such properties. We’ve currently got 40,000 people registered to buy properties across our network.

“We’d like to hear from any local authorities who have problems with empty homes, as we can quickly help them to solve this issue locally, as well as helping to relieve the national housing crisis.”

Future SDL Auctions events are listed here, and anyone interested should call 0800 304 7879 or email [email protected]