The well-known seaside city with 7,000 empty houses as 3,400 sit on housing | UK | News | EUROtoday

A latest insurance coverage survey has reported the staggering variety of empty houses within the UK. While  London usually has essentially the most empty houses, adopted by Manchester, there may be one stunning seaside city that is available in third place. The city is known for its golden sands, vibrant pier, leisure, and being near the costliest piece of coastal actual property within the UK. Yet greater than 7,000 houses stay empty on this rich south coast city, whereas roughly 3401 households are on the council ready listing for a house.

Hundreds of 1000’s of properties throughout the UK with out tenants pose elevated safety considerations for these accountable for their administration, in accordance with Clearway.co.uk, a UK-based safety and property safety firm. London tops the ballot with 87,731 unoccupied properties, price £130 billion to the house owners, with Manchester with 8,024 empty houses coming in second place.

But the third-place slot is probably essentially the most stunning, with extra empty houses than Birmingham (6,975), Bradford (6,056), Leeds (4,857), Coventry (4,399), Bristol ( 3,725), Brighton & Hove (3,388), and Reading (2,595), which make up the remainder of the highest 10.

Bournemouth is available in third place with 7,213 empty houses, whereas round 3,400 households sit on the council ready listing for a house.

The common value of a house within the Bournemouth postcode space is round £404,000, placing it £130,000 increased than the common UK property value of £270,000.

However, property in close by Sandbanks is a staggering £1.28 million, in accordance with figures from mid-2025, though there may be proof that this dropped to £965,000 by the tip of the yr.

Labour councillors have stated there’s a “housing crisis” in Bournemouth and neighbouring Christchurch and Poole.

Leaving properties empty is a significant safety danger, in accordance with Clearway, together with arson. They say deliberate fires are frequent in empty houses. Then there are unintentional fires brought on by gasoline pipe leaks, defective electrics and dampness.

Another drawback is squatters, notably in cities the place unlawful occupants are fast to maneuver into empty properties and might be tough to evict or could trigger malicious injury.

Criminals typically find vacant houses to steal steel, roofing tiles, radiators, glazing, doorways and timbers.

Finally there are issues of safety with vermin, infestations, contaminated water, disused sewage programs and normal dilapidation that may trigger untold injury, presenting well being dangers that will impression the encompassing space.

A Clearway spokesperson stated: “These issues can cause ongoing costs, above and beyond the immediate repairs or replacements, and will often mean that empty property insurance premiums increase as the perceived risk rises.

“Homes which have beforehand been the goal of crime can drop sharply in worth, and a poorly maintained property can lose as much as 1 / 4 of its market worth, as can the houses close by.

“Dilapidation, where bricks begin to erode, render cracks or paint starts to flake, can cost more to fix than the property is worth, leading to challenges such as roots growing into the foundations.

“In the worst-case state of affairs, an empty dwelling can fall into disrepair the place insurance coverage insurance policies don’t cowl the extent of injury brought about, and it turns into financially unviable to deliver it again into liveable situation.”