A mildly interesting article at the BBC on the subject.
But really this is about agglomeration benefits.
At one extreme, there are the multi-£-million buy-to-leave flats in London standing empty. The only thing which gives them value is the fact that they are in London i.e. agglomeration benefits (actual or potential).
At the other end, the abandoned streets in seaside towns, the reverse applies. If one house is standing empty in a road, it makes the area a bit less attractive and so depresses the value of the other houses a bit. If two are empty, that depresses the values by more than twice as much. The effect is geometric and reaches a tipping point, so once a third or half the homes on a street are empty, the others are now virtually unsaleable.
In which case, Liverpool was doing the right thing selling off a whole street for £1 each, that gets people back into the houses and kick starts the process again.
(In either case, LVT would have sorted it out, but that's by the by).
Debate Magazine
