Empty Space Spotter

Habitat for Humanity Great Britain

About this app

The Empty Space Spotter aims to address the lack of availability of data on empty spaces across UK. One of the biggest challenges of repurposing empty spaces for housing is finding appropriate properties. Current practice for gathering information includes reaching out to local authorities and other organisations and requesting information about their available empty spaces. However, the lack of reliable and consistent data across the country can make this difficult.

But every community knows those shops, offices, and warehouses which change hands regularly and seem to remain vacant for repeated periods. The longer this continues, the less attractive it becomes to potential tenants, and so lower maintenance priority for the owner. Telling us about these long-term empty spaces can create opportunities for them to be repurposed.

Help us to document empty spaces, enabling organisations such as Habitat
and civil society to advocate for and replicate Empty Spaces to Homes across the UK. By unlocking the power of the crowd, Habitat for Humanity Great Britain, our Empty Spaces to Homes Coalition, and the wider UK society can raise the profile of empty spaces as a potential solution to the housing crisis.