Thousands of owners may be unaware that their empty properties are no longer fully protected by standard home or landlord insurance policies, according to Ceta Insurance.
An estimated 750,000 homes are standing empty across the UK, the highest number for more than a decade, the digital insurance broker said.
Most standard home and landlord policies provide cover for properties left unoccupied for only 30 to 60 days. Owners who exceed that period could discover that their cover is inadequate only when making a claim.
Ceta, part of Atec Group, analysed almost 2,000 live unoccupied property policies with a combined rebuild value of more than £720 million to map their concentration by postcode.
The broker said Wales accounted for five of the seven leading postcode areas in its national league table. Hebden Bridge and Darwen in the Pennines also featured prominently, while rural and coastal areas in Norfolk, Northumberland, Cornwall and County Durham completed the top 10.
The findings suggest that demand for unoccupied property insurance is concentrated more heavily in rural and coastal communities than in large cities.
Properties can remain empty for extended periods for several reasons, including inheritance, use as second homes or holiday lets, renovation work, repairs after floods, fires or water leaks, slow property markets, longer gaps between tenancies and ageing local populations.
Ceta reported that its sales of unoccupied property insurance in 2025 were 500% higher than in 2020. Conversion rates increased fivefold over the same period.
The company said this reflected wider evidence that 75% of brokers regard unoccupied properties as an important growth opportunity.
Harry Peters, business-to-business operations manager at Ceta, said: “This is the first time an insurer has mapped exactly where the UK’s biggest unoccupied risks are located, and just how exposed homeowners across the UK are to the wide range of vulnerabilities associated with empty properties.
“Worryingly, a very large proportion of these owners might be completely unaware of the risk they are carrying, with the inadequacy of a standard policy only revealing itself when they attempt to make a claim.”
He added: “Our data also reveals a bigger story, namely that what was once considered a niche insurance product is becoming increasingly mainstream.
“Intermediaries with the right insurance partner are better placed to proactively discuss unoccupied insurance with their clients, thereby differentiating themselves as trusted advisors while protecting the growing number exposed to genuine financial risk.”
