• Northern Ireland has various housing issues right now, including a lack of social homes, infrastructure and financial challenges that make building new houses difficult, and a possible poverty trap associated with rising costs.
  • One way to ease the pressure could be to take empty homes and put them to use. However, this comes with its own challenges. It is not clear how many usable empty homes there are – never mind the fact that “vacant domestic properties” and “houses without usual residents” are two different things.

In a 24 February debate in the Assembly on a new deal for private renters, People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said:

“According to Land and Property Services (LPS), there are at least 22,500 empty homes in the North, but the latest census report states that there are over 52,000 households with no usual residents. I hope that the Minister can clarify which it is.”

That seems like a massive difference – 22,500 empty homes versus 52,000 houses with no residents.

The latest Census took place in 2021, so its data is a few years old, while Land and Property Services (LPS) provide regularly-updated figures. Nonetheless, one figure is more than double the other, with an absolute difference of around 30,000.

However, a more detailed look at what Mr Carroll referred to as “empty homes” compared with what is meant by households with no usual residents reveals a more subtle picture. These statistics measure different things.

LPS does not actually hold any figures for “empty homes”. Instead, they collect information about “vacant domestic properties”. That might seem like needless jargon, but this actually includes information on things like caravans and garages. It’s not all homes.

Meanwhile, “houses without usual residents” also does not necessarily mean empty homes, as it can include holiday homes, rental accommodation and more.

There are also potential inaccuracies with the LPS figures – for instance, rating legislation does not require ratepayers to notify LPS on changes to Domestic property occupancy in all circumstances therefore, the numbers presented may not accurately reflect reality (note that there is no advantage to holding this information back from LPS, as rates are still paid on empty properties).

To find out more, read on.

  • Sources

FactCheckNI contacted Mr Carroll about his comments in the Assembly. We received a response pointing us to LPS data on domestic property vacancies and also to statistics collected as part of the 2021 census (see page nine here).

With regards to the LPS data, Mr Carroll’s response also stated:

“The Minister and Department have told us those figures are unreliable – that many of those properties are now occupied, and many unoccupied properties won’t be included in the data. Basically there’s nobody in the Department or LPS responsible for monitoring this.”

It said further that Mr Carroll has tabled a question to the Finance Minister “asking for an explanation of the discrepancy between the census and LPS data”, and that, “We know part of it will be due to date differences (2021 census vs 2024 LPS), definition of vacant home (census includes holiday homes, second homes, etc). But just wanted to pick up on any other differences we might be missing.”

  • Land and Property Services

The first statistic quoted by Mr Carroll concerns data from Land and Property Services (LPS).

LPS is an agency operating under the Department of Finance (DoF) and, according to the department, its role is to “collect, process and manage land and property information, which underpins the collection of rates, in support of the Executive’s commitment to economic and social development in Northern Ireland.”

Mr Carroll suggested that the LPS has stated that “there are at least 22,500 empty homes” in NI.

The specific term used by LPS is not “empty homes” and the organisation instead refers to “vacant domestic properties.” A vacant domestic property is defined as being vacant for rating purposes if it is unoccupied, unfurnished and not used for storage (see references here, here and here). This includes caravans, domestic garages, domestic stores and car parking spaces.

Therefore, this definition refers to empty domestic properties that are not in use, even for storage.

  • Census

Data from the NI Census indicates that there are 52,300 “vacant households” in Northern Ireland.

Vacant households are defined as a household (a living space for one or more people with shared cooking and cleaning facilities) with no usual residents. Usual residents in this context are defined as people living in the UK for more than three months or those from the UK who have a permanent address in the UK and have been in the UK over the last 12 months. (Note that a general list of Census definitions is available here.)

Additional information on this data states that the figures on vacant households may include households that have short-term visitors.

  • Deeper dive on LPS

The most recent LPS data at the time of writing states that there are 22,666 vacant domestic properties in Northern Ireland, as of December 2024, with these figures also broken down by individual council area.

However, as mentioned above, ratepayers are not required by law to notify LPS on changes to domestic property occupancy in all circumstances therefore, the numbers presented may not accurately reflect all vacant properties in each District Council.

In a 7 January response to a written question from UUP MLA Andy Allen on “the progress made in identifying and repurposing vacant properties to address housing shortages”, Mr Lyons said:

“LPS provides my Department with information that enables insight into the location of vacant properties, however they routinely caution that their figures should not be relied upon for accuracy. Since the introduction of Rating of Empty Homes in October 2011 there is no financial advantage or requirement for homeowners/ ratepayers to notify LPS that the property is vacant. As such, data provided for any period after October 2011 may not be wholly accurate.

“Furthermore, the unknown condition of these dwellings presents additional complications. Many may require substantial renovations, lack essential utilities, or be involved in ownership disputes or court proceedings.”

It is also crucial to note that data contained within LPS tables is counted differently from the housing stock figures, as Caravans, Domestic Garages, Domestic Stores, and Car Parking Spaces are included in this Domestic property count and Mixed properties are excluded. Mixed properties are those which include domestic and commercial facilities on them.

  • The Census – “vacant households”, not empty homes

Although the census does not include the term “empty home”, it does include data on the number of “vacant households” – meaning a household with no usual residents.

Figure 1 – source: NI Census 2021

When considering the figure of 52,300 for vacant households, it’s important to note the following:

  • A “small number of vacant households will have short-term visitors staying in them but the majority will be wholly unoccupied”, according to a statistical bulletin accompanying Census data (although it’s not clear what this assertion is based on).
  • The census does not collect information on the nature of vacant accommodation – whether it is a holiday home or other form of second home, rental to visitors, unoccupied due to the death of the previous occupant, for sale etc.
  • Vacant household spaces and household spaces that are used as second addresses are also classified in census results as household spaces with no usual residents.
  • Empty homes? Housing stock and LPS combined

So, how many empty homes are there? The best estimate might be found in a response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request from last year.

Housing stock is defined as “a count of properties which are valued as domestic or mixed for rating. This refers to properties in the Valuation List which are used for the purposes of a private dwelling. This excludes caravans, domestic garages, domestic stores and car parking spaces.”

According to an April 2024 Department of Finance FoI response, LPS does not maintain a register of “vacant homes” (or, in other words, ‘empty homes’). DoF said this is because “there is currently no requirement for ratepayers to inform Land & Property Services that their property is vacant, nor is there any financial advantage in doing so.”

However, within that response DoF stated that, for the FOI, they defined “vacant homes” as properties within the Housing Stock and included as “vacant” on the LPS rating system (see above).

With this working definition of “vacant homes”, the Department of Finance provided the figure of 21,081 housing stock across Northern Ireland – which, notwithstanding the already-discussed caveats about accuracy of the LPS figures, is about the best approximation we have for the number of empty homes in NI.

  • Compare and contrast, and caveats

So, in short, the Census considers vacant households – defined as households without usual residents – which can include second homes, Airbnbs, and so on.

Furthermore, “the census does not collect information on the nature of vacant accommodation – whether it is a holiday home or other form of second home, rental to visitors, unoccupied due to the death of the previous occupant, for sale etc.”

An illustration of how second homes and holiday rentals can affect these figures may well be seen in data looking specifically at the Causeway Coast and Glens, an area of Northern Ireland where this type of housing has been controversial (see news reports here, here and here).

Census data indicated that “the overall Northern Ireland level of vacant households stood at 6.4%” but “the highest vacancy level across Northern Ireland was in the Causeway Coast & Glens Local Government District at 13.5% or 9,000 vacant households.”

On the other hand, LPS data on vacant domestic properties covers various types of building including caravans and garages, as well as houses, and are considered empty  when they have no occupiers, are unfurnished and are not used for storage.

Although the LPS includes a broader range of building types (e.g. parking spaces), NISRA’s census statistics includes a larger number of homes that can be interpreted as empty, whilst still being in use, in some capacity.

Altogether, this might explain the large difference between the two figures mentioned by Mr Carroll. If anyone has any further information that could be of use in this explainer, please get in touch.

Both sets of data also come with caveats, including:

  • There is no record of how long these houses have been ‘vacant’
  • The NI Census fails to include information on how households were categorised as vacant (i.e. what was the measurement that took place to characterise a house as being vacant?) 
  • With regards to LPS data, the figure of ‘22,666 vacant domestic properties’ is deemed inaccurate by Communities Minister Gordon Lyons, who suggests that these figures may be an under-representation of the reality. 
  • The Minister also made the point (in his written answer, quoted above) that the condition of these vacant properties is unrecorded, and that “many may require substantial renovations, lack essential utilities, or be involved in ownership disputes or court proceedings.”
  • Context

Why is any of this important?

Northern Ireland has several significant issues with housing. In the past couple of years, we have carried out fact checks on several claims associated with this:

In October 2023, we looked at whether social housing waiting lists had doubled in twenty years (yes they had).

  • Last October, we investigated whether housebuilding in NI is at a sixty-year low (it is).
  • In May 2022, we considered a claim stating that over 40,000 people in Northern Ireland are on the Housing Executive waiting list, with 30,000 of them in ‘housing stress’ (accurate).
  • Last July, we researched whether it was true that over 5,000 children are living in temporary accommodation (that was accurate too).

All of this is important in isolation, but there are knock-on effects too. Despite not exactly being the wealthiest part of the UK, local poverty rates have actually been lower than other nations and regions.

A January 2025 report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation indicates that this is still broadly the case. This has been the case for some years, and previous JRF research has highlighted how the relative affordability of housing in NI, compared with other parts of the UK, is the reason for this.

That might sound like good news, but it also suggests that rising housing costs represent a risk factor for increasing local poverty rates quite significantly. The more pressure is placed on local housing, and the more it fails to meet demand, the higher the chance that these risk factors become reality.
If empty homes can be brought back into use, this could ease pressure on the housing market. However, to really know how much potential “empty homes” have to put roofs over peoples heads, you have to know how many empty homes there are, as well as how ready they are to be used. And, if you’ve read this far, you probably know that this information isn’t exactly straightforward…