2,000 Empty Apartments In Reykjanesbær

While apartment rental costs continue to rise in Reykjavík, about 2,000 apartments in nearby Reykjanesbær stand empty.

Kjarninn reports that the apartments vary from being single family to multi-family dwellings. These numbers comprise about half of all the empty and habitable apartments in the country, although there are an untold number which are still under construction.

These empty apartments were either vacated, or remained empty, around the time of the bank crash of late 2008. Suðurnes, where Reykjanesbær is located, has the highest rate of unemployment in the country. However, the capital area is only about a half hour’s drive away.

As reported, the cost of renting an apartment in Reykjavík has been steadily rising, to the point where renters in the west Reykjavík neighbourhood of Vesturbær pay up to twice what others renters pay in other towns in west Iceland.