..“The situation is a nightmare — total disaster,” says Carol Peett, who founded the property consultancy West Wales Property Finders http://www.westwalespropertyfinders.co.uk. She lives in Narberth and helps people to relocate.
Second homeowners can swerve the inflated council tax for a year by putting their homes up for sale, which has led to a market glut. “It’s killing the economy totally because now there are loads of empty houses sitting empty on the market that were holiday cottages, and people aren’t buying them.”
Last week there were 172 properties for sale in Tenby on Zoopla — “an unprecedented number”, according to Peett.
She adds that the second homes that have come up for sale, usually in plum spots with a sea view, aren’t what first-time buyers are after because they are expensive and low on storage space. “The local people can afford things under £250,000,” she says. “A £750,000 house is never going to drop by enough.”
The Sunday Times – Sunday, 28th July 2024 – https://www.thetimes.com/uk/society/article/pembroke-taxed-second-homes-an-extra-20-per-cent-heres-what-happened-85xwcdmpr
If you are looking for a property in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire or Ceredigion, give West Wales Property Finders a call on 01834 862816. We can find your perfect property for you whilst saving you stress, time, and often money too.
Targeting second home owners does nothing to resolve the issues as regards local housing supply. It is a lazy and totally unimaginative as well as a damaging attempt to resolve the issues. In the long term it will cause untold damage to the local economy and result in job losses. How will the young afford houses then. Help them onto the ladder by building affordable homes and encourage job developement through attracting industry and business, the current policy does exactly the opposite. Welsh government and the local councils are brainless.
I totally agree with all you said. I also suggested it would be more effective to prevent anything under the average price of a property in the area (circa £250-260,000)
from being sold as a second home as these are the type of properties young local families can afford; not £1 million ones.
I am stuck in a similar situation in Scotland. Work is in Europe and we have a house we couldn’t sell as it suffered a structural defect after we moved overseas. We have thus held on to it and return 4 times a year. Our LA are fully aware of the situation but this year decided to double our council tax claiming it is a second home. For the record we live in rented accommodation in the country where we work, all we own there is our furniture.
When I challenged the LA I was told to take my case to a tax tribunal in Edinburgh. My house is on an estate where an illegal airbnb is running , the LA are fully aware of this and have had complaints but are doing nothing about the owner whose short term tenants are using way more services than us and are parking vehicles not permitted by the deeds. It is a very unfair system.
Guernsey set up two markets about 50 years ago, one for locals and one for incomers. If a local sold to an incomer they forfeited the right to buy on the local market. Wales should do that : it would stop locals selling to incomers then bleating about incomers buying houses!!!!!
Great point well made I have thought this for
a while why not
Copy the channel island approach for seaside towns. The reason is the council want second homes
As they make more money
In Jersey they had (may still do) a rule that certain houses could be bought by anyone who could afford them, whilst those that were classed as lower value were for local people.
It’s a crazy way to gain revenue, the people who own these second homes, do so for pleasure, and most likely eat out and treat themselves when staying in their second home, all feeding into the local economy, the shortage of houses would not be over if all the second homes were given up
Unfortunately most second homes are empty most of the time with no one contributing anything at all to the community. At least if locals bought the houses you would get real shops not just gift shops and restaurants and they would be there all year round and heaven forbid , you might even experience what a community feels like.
That may be true in other parts of the country but not here – Tenby has a great community spirit; I have lots of friends living there and live just outside and it is lively all year round and actually most of the second homes are occupied most of the time as holiday let whilst not being used. However, due to this “jealousy tax” they are indeed standing empty as people are selling them as they can’t or won’t pay the tax (and they can stand empty for a year without having to pay the tax) and no one is buying them. I have had numerous shop keepers, restaurant and cafe owners telling me how it is this that has decimated their trade as they rely on second home owners to spend more money in their establishments than locals ever do, and it has also hit tradesmen, cleaners, etc. very badly. There is a simple solution, if it really was to help young locals buy houses, and that is to just prevent any property under the average price of a property in the area (circa £250,000) being sold as a second home as these are the houses that locals can afford; not £750,000 seaside houses!!
Oh by the way I am not an estate agent and it was written by the Times journalist not by me anyway
I agree Trevor. We have a two bed semi 100 year old cottage on the Isle of Wight. We visit it every month and use local pubs, shops and tradespeople. Holidaymakers peak visiting time is August when the island’s population mushrooms. Afterwards though it drops away and we see competition discounts in restaurants with hotels closing down for close season. We and other holiday home owners though still come to the island bringing much needed revenue. Dissuading holiday home owners or forcing them to sell will be a big own goal. I have made this point to my local Councillor who hasn’t even had the courtesy to reply.