The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 4 letter word GHOST TOWN
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
G
H
O
S
T
T
O
W
N
More clues leading to the result GHOST TOWN
- Dress outside army technician’s van in quiet place
- Spooner’s brown dress, it’s abandoned
- Company in outskirts of Gosport requiring private, quiet location
- Good landlord won’t rent — place now empty
- Wearing dress, emcee beginning to tremble as place emptied
- Good MC won’t fancy a place that’s empty
- Landlady hiding first part of takings in dress in rundown area
- Presenter, tousled initially in dress, deserted place
- Guest gutted about landlord with private place that’s empty
- Write for nowt, desperate, in deserted place
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "place now empty" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case place now empty = ghost town.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.