This is the London borough with the most empty homes
Kensington and Chelsea has overtaken Lambeth as the London borough with the most empty houses.
Lambeth had the most unused properties back in 2006, followed closely by Croydon, but the empty housing stock in these areas has now been occupied.
In England as a whole, there are 200,145 empty homes, which are worth £43bn in total, according to research by Property Partner.
Unsurprisingly, London makes up for a substantial proportion of the empty properties. There were 19,845 homes lying empty for more than six months last year, or £9.4bn worth of property; 22 per cent of the total empty homes in England by value.
Read more: Revealed: The London boroughs where house price growth is still above 20pc
Within London, Kensington and Chelsea had £2bn worth of empty properties last year, with 1,399 idle homes, an increase of 8.5 per cent on the year before.
This is how the number of empty homes in different London boroughs has changed over the last 10 years. The total value of the homes in each area was calculated using the London average property price of £474,704:
LONDON BOROUGHS
Number of empty homes 2006
Number of empty homes 2016
Total value of potential homes sitting idle
Kensington and Chelsea
1,140
1,399
£664,110,896
Croydon
2,721
1,216
£577,240,064
Camden
1,056
1,114
£528,820,256
Barnet
1,604
1,100
£522,174,400
Enfield
3,028
1,085
£515,053,840
Hackney
2,441
1,046
£496,540,384
Southwark
1,192
926
£439,575,904
Lewisham
0
812
£385,459,648
Lambeth
2,807
756
£358,876,224
Haringey
535
732
£347,483,328
Ealing
1,091
695
£329,919,280
Tower Hamlets
940
656
£311,405,824
Harrow
370
651
£309,032,304
Newham
2,070
593
£281,499,472
Bromley
1,253
591
£280,550,064
Sutton
1,238
566
£268,682,464
Merton
971
502
£238,301,408
Islington
1,057
499
£236,877,296
Dan Gandesha, chief executive of Property Partner, said: “These figures lay bare the huge amount of housing stock lying empty across the country.
“Councils have had the power to apply to seize empty homes since 2006 and huge advances have been made over the last ten years…We’d like to see the trend of the last decade continue, particularly where prices and demand are highest.”