London is hemmed in by the "Metropolitan Green Belt" which restricts building, and inside the belt housebuilding is very hard due to planning policy. House buil

London is hemmed in by the "Metropolitan Green Belt" which restricts building, and inside the belt housebuilding is very hard due to planning policy. House building in London is barely keeping step with the usual deterioration of the housing stock - let alone with the population growing by more than a million people in a decade. > lots of property is being built and left empty 8,000 properties empty for more than 2 years is nothing in the big scheme of things. It is maybe 0.2-0.3% of the housing stock. In fact, this is amazingly low.