Greater Manchester Empty Homes Week Begins

Property owners will be offered free advice to make their empty properties generate income during this week's Greater Manchester Empty Homes Week.

Greater Manchester Empty to Plenty (Monday 23 September – Friday 27 September) is an AGMA-wide campaign aimed at raising awareness of efforts being made to bring empty homes back into use across Greater Manchester and encouraging further effort and investment .

As part of a week of events, Manchester City Council is offering a free advice session on letting, leasing or selling an empty property – as well as information on loans to improve a property – urging landlords to make use of their unused property assets.

Lost rental revenue and new council tax rules mean landlords are already losing money as exemptions and reduced council tax costs are no longer applicable to empty homes. Owners could be liable for up to 150% council tax – costing between £2,049 and £5,268 per year depending on banding and how long it has stood empty – but a week of events could help landlords generate an income on their empty property.


Manchester City Council recently announced its draft Residential Growth Prospectus that set out the city's housing priorities up to 2027, when population growth estimates show a need for up to 55,000 more properties across the city – and a key part of the strategy to keep up with demand is to bring Manchester's empty homes back into use.

Since setting up in 2012, the city council's dedicated empty homes team has already brought 500 empty homes back into use.

This includes a landmark partnership with Rowlinsons Construction Ltd and The Manchester College to bring 27 long-term empty properties in East Manchester back into use. The first group of refurbished properties were completed in June this year.

Councillor Nigel Murphy, Manchester City Council's executive member for environment, said: "Locating Manchester's empty homes, their owners and attempting to discover their sometimes complicated backstory can be incredibly difficult – but these properties represent an important resource in the city's housing stock and are a significant part of realising our future housing and growth ambitions."

(CD/JP)