AROUND 2,500 homes in Newport have been empty for more than six months, new figures show.

According to the latest statistics, there are 1.3m homes in Wales, with 26,000 being empty for more than six months.

Of this, 2,600 are based in Carmarthen, 2,500 in Newport, 2,300 in Swansea, 1,300 in Cardiff and 1,200 are in Merthyr.

During 2017, the team at home insurance company www.coverbuilder.co.uk, based in Penarth, have noticed a large increase in the number of home insurance policies taken out for properties with no occupants.

Rob Rushton, head of CoverBuilder said: “We have seen a significant rise in the number of home insurance policies, where people need insurance for an unoccupied property. This could be due to inheritance, people working abroad, properties purchased for holiday homes, or purely used as an investment.”

Figures published in August 2017 by the Resolution Foundation have show between 2000 and 2014, the number of people with privately-owned, multiple properties in the UK, has risen from 1.6m to 5.2m.

The analysis suggested that the majority of these owners were not landlords, with perhaps as many as 3.4m people having an empty property that was not being used to let. Government statistics show that 589,766 properties were recorded as vacant October 3, 2016, with 200,000 of these empty for at least six months. Visit coverbuilder.co.uk/unoccupied-property-insurance.