More than 2,600 unoccupied houses

Out of the approximately 18,880 residential properties, 2,614 do not have full-time occupants, according to the latest figures.

Sandoy has the highest relative number of unoccupied houses, with a total of 32 percent, followed by Suðuroy with 21 percent.

The definition of a residential property in this context is dwelling houses, semi-detached houses, terrace houses and blocks of flats.

National housing register

A working group with representatives from the Environment Agency and Statistics Faroe Islands has for the past two years been working on setting up a national housing register.

The plan is, in addition to creating a general overview of the housing market, to use this register to determine household energy sources and the total value of the Faroese housing market.

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

More Faroese News in English.