One in five houses unoccupied

Twenty percent of houses in the southern part of the country are unoccupied, new figures reveal. Out of the 2,164 residential properties in Suðuroy, 422 (19.5 percent) are uninhabited.

Local authorities across the country have been asked to compile a list of unoccupied homes in each municipality. The lists submitted so far reveal that Suðuroy, Sandoy and parts of Sunda Municipality are worst off in this respect. The places with fewest empty houses are Gøta, Leirvík and Fuglafjørður.

Tórshavn, Klaksvík, Runavík and Skopun municipalities have yet to complete their lists, and according to Eyðun Christiansen, the head of the Municipality Association, some of the larger municipalities may not be able submit a list at all.

Since Skopun has yet to hand in its list, the figures for Sandoy are incomplete. But if we disregard Skopun for now, he says, one in three houses in Sandoy is unoccupied – 170 out of 489 residential houses (34.8 percent) are currently uninhabited.

422 emty houses

The figure for Suðuroy is 19.5 percent, with 422 out of a total of 2,164 houses unoccupied.

In Sunda Municipality 191 out of 1,031 residential properties (18.5 percent) are empty.

More uplifting figures can be found in Eysturoy. In Skálafjørður only 9.3 percent of houses are unoccupied, while in Fuglafjørður and Eystur municipalities, the figure is a mere 4.5 percent.

The national average is 16 percent, but it is worth noting that only 24 of the country’s 29 municipalities are represented in the latest figures.

Translated by prosa.fo