How to reduce void turnaround times in social housing
Void turnaround comes down when the work starts at the tenant's notice instead of when the keys come back, and when repairs and lettings run side by side on one clock, from notice to the new tenant moving in. The empty days usually sit in the handoffs between inspection, repairs and lettings, not in the work itself.
The short answer
- Start at notice, with an inspection before the tenant leaves.
- Line up the next tenant before the home is empty.
- Sort voids by the work they need.
- Agree one lettable standard and finish the home to it.
- Start the work when the keys arrive.
- Run repairs and lettings side by side, as one job.
- Give applicants a true picture of the home.
- Measure from notice to move-in, and see where the days go.
Published figures. They are not from my own analysis: see “What has and has not been tested” below.
1. Start at notice, not when the keys come back
A notice is advance warning. A void that starts when the keys arrive has already lost the notice period.
Inspect the home while the outgoing tenant is still in it. This is often called a pre-termination inspection. It lets you plan the works, order materials and agree anything the tenant should put right before they leave.
2. Line up the next tenant before the home is empty
When lettings starts only after repairs hands the home back, the home waits for the tenant and the tenant waits for the home.
Start the letting at notice. Shortlist, verify and arrange the viewing while the works are under way, so the home is ready when the tenant is.
3. Sort voids by the work they need
A home that needs a clean and its safety checks should not queue behind one that needs a new kitchen. Sort voids at the inspection into those that need routine work and those that need major works, and plan each kind separately.
The published figures show how far apart the two are. In Housemark's Voids Club research, covering 45 providers, the average re-let time for all voids in 2023/24 was 74 days. Excluding major repairs it was close to 50. Five years earlier the equivalent figure was below 30.
4. Agree one lettable standard and finish the home to it
Write down what a home must have before it is let and what can be done after the tenant moves in, and apply it the same way to every home.
A home that is let unfinished comes back as snagging, re-inspection and repairs in the new tenancy. In 2023/24 half of landlords were still carrying out void repairs during new tenancies (Housemark Voids Club). Those repairs join the repairs queue.
5. Start the work when the keys arrive
A target can slow a void down. In the government's housing pilot, a contractor at Leeds South East Homes working to a 28-day target for void repairs would often not start until the target date was near (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2005). It is a single case study, not a benchmark. You can check your own position by comparing the day the keys arrived with the day the work began.
Have the trades ready for the voids you already know are coming. When an operative finds more than the standard expects, let them deal with it there and then. Otherwise it becomes a variation, a wait for approval or a second contractor.
6. Run repairs and lettings side by side, as one job
Inspection, works, cleaning, safety checks, advertising and viewing do not have to wait for each other. Run them side by side, and release homes to the contractor one at a time as they come empty, not in batches.
Keep one record for the void from notice to keys, and keep the group that handles it small. Every hand-off between a system and a team, the keys included, is a place where an empty home waits.
7. Give applicants a true picture of the home
A refused offer starts the letting again while the home stands empty. Give applicants a true picture of the home and of when it will be ready, at the start and along the way, so they do not have to phone to find out.
The allocations scorecard asks about this under the reading Honest Supply.
8. Measure from notice to move-in
Every stage can be inside its target while the home sits empty between them: the inspection waits for the trades, the trades for the contractor, the contractor for lettings, lettings for the applicant.
Key-to-key time, the days from keys returned to keys handed over, counts those gaps. Counting from the outgoing tenant's notice to the new tenant moving in counts the notice period as well. One council that redesigned its voids began measuring that way (Clackmannanshire Council, 2015).
Whichever you choose, make the report show where the days go, stage by stage. A total re-let time and a rent loss figure show that days were lost. They do not show where.
In Scotland, social homes stood empty for 61 days on average in 2024/25, four days more than the year before: 78 days for councils and 40 for registered social landlords.
Why the days matter
In 2024/25 there were 263,000 new social lettings in England, about 6% of 4.3 million homes, on the government's lettings statistics. An empty home is supply waiting for demand that is already there, so every empty week is a household still waiting.
What has and has not been tested
The figures on this page are published ones: Housemark's Voids Club research (February 2025), the Scottish Housing Regulator's national report on the Charter for 2024/25, government lettings statistics for England and a government pilot report from 2005. The Leeds case is one landlord, in 2005.
My own analysis of the public data, The Chase Report, Part 1, covers repairs. It found that repairs completed within target explains 12% of how residents feel about repair times across 352 large landlords in England. The same kind of targets run voids and lettings, but that finding has not been tested for them and should not be read across.
The question is the same for all three housing services, repairs, voids and allocations: do the measures show what tenants and applicants live through, or only that each stage kept its own promise?
Sources: Housemark Voids Club research (February 2025); Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, A Systematic Approach to Service Improvement: Evaluating Systems Thinking in Housing (2005); Scottish Housing Regulator, National Report on the Scottish Social Housing Charter 2024/25 (August 2025); Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, social housing lettings statistics for England, 2024/25.
Questions landlords ask
What is a good void turnaround time?
There is no single figure. Published averages run from 40 days for Scottish registered social landlords to 78 for Scottish councils, and Housemark's research puts all voids at 74 days. Compare your own days from notice to move-in with last year's, and look at the spread as well as the average.
What is key-to-key time?
The days from the outgoing tenant returning the keys to the new tenant receiving them. It includes every wait between inspection, works and letting. It does not include the notice period, so counting from notice to move-in shows more.
Should lettings wait until the works are finished?
No. Start the letting at notice and run it alongside the works, so the home is ready when the tenant is.
Do void targets shorten turnaround?
Not by themselves. In one published case a contractor on a 28-day target for void repairs would often not start until the target date was near. Compare the day the keys arrived with the day the work began.
Every stage of our void process meets its target. Do we still have a problem?
You may. A stage can be inside its target while the home waits for the next one. The days from notice to move-in show it. The stage targets do not.
