The abandoned flats 'super sleuth' who will tackle Glasgow's housing crisis

Council tax records show that around 47,000 privately owned properties have been lying empty for at least six months in Scotland, with Glasgow 'disproportionately' affected.

Shelter cited a recent case where an inherited flat that had been neglected for 18 years in an area of high demand in North Lanarkshire.

The charity says there are many reasons why flats lie empty. Relatives who inherit properties may be unable to afford the renovations needed to bring it back into use.

Local authorities can face challenges tracing owners, which delays progress.

Glasgow based social enterprise Homes for Good is to appoint a dedicated project manager, in a partnership with Shelter, whose work with include tracing the owners of abandoned flats, predominantly in Scotland's  largest city but also taking in Renfrewshire and Ayrshire.

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The not-for-profit organisation can offer to carry out the refurbishments with the costs recouped in rent over a period of months or years. It is able to access funds that are not available to local authorities. In some cases tenants may be given the opportunity to own the property. 

"We were joking when we set up the advert that we are looking for a super-sleuth," said Dr Susan Aktamel, Executive Director of Homes for Good.

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"It's quite a challenge to track owners down and then if you do find them, to negotiate with them and try to understand what the barrier is. We need someone quite tenacious with a background in housing.

"Council officers don't always have the resources to do it.

"There are a whole number of reasons why owners bury their heads in the sand.

"It could be someone has died, of they have gone into a care home and a relative has inherited a property.

"It might be in a really bad state of repair and owners don't have the money to do it. The council tax bills are going through the letter-box and they are just ignoring them.

"We have investment and we might be able to buy the property. It may be that owners don't want to sell it but can't afford the renovation.

"So we can then pay for the renovation on the agreement that we manage the property and rent it out.

She added: "The properties might be relatively low value, but we then renovate it and have interior designers who make them really beautiful. There's a real transformation."

As well as operating a letting agency the social enterprise has a commitment to create homes for people on lower incomes who ordinarily might not have much choice in the mainstream housing market.

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"We have raised about £16million - in investment not grants - to buy and develop properties that are old and tired, generally lower value properties and we then rent them out at housing association rent levels.

"Typically there will be lots of one bedroomed tenements in Glasgow."

There is evidence that the pandemic led to more short-term holiday lets being put back into the mainstream rental market, which Dr Aktamel described as 'very positive'. 

"You see it most marked in Edinburgh. From what I understand rental prices dropped but I don't get the sense that that happened in Glasgow. 

Shelter has called on the Scottish Government to set a target of delivering 53,000 affordable homes over the next five years.

"I work in empty homes and I still wonder, why do people keep homes empty for so long," says Shaheena Din, National Project Manager for the charity's Empty Homes Partnership, which is funded by the Scottish Government.

"We've been compiling our annual report and there was a property that was inherited in 2001 and it's been empty 18 years in a high demand housing area. There were complaints from residents.

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"The owner inherited the house and didn't know what to do with it. They had been carrying out regular visits to the property. It's like out of sight, out of mind.

"The empty homes officer contacted the owner and said the council could potentially back the property and that motivated the owner to put it up for sale. A family has now bought that and is moving in after renovations.

"This is not a single story. There are hundreds and hundreds of stories like this.

"Sometimes dealing with a property can be overwhelming. You've got all your own issues to deal with and now an empty property.

"This is why we need all councils to at least have an empty homes officer at the very minimum who can go out and speak to owners."

Data shows there was 16% increase in the number of homes recorded as empty in Scotland in September last year.

"What I would say is that we need to be careful with these figures as the market had just opened up and there was a bottleneck so perhaps these homes have been brought back into use. The picture is still emerging."