A mass exodus has occurred in one iconic seaside town as homeowners have been forced to sell up.
Second home owners are packing their bags and abandoning their second homes in Tenby
One of Wales’ top seaside towns risks becoming empty of tourists as a hike in council tax on second homes bites. Tenby’s cobble lined streets are flooded with ‘for sale’ signs after Pembrokeshire County Council slapped second-home owners with a 200 per cent premium on council tax last year – tripling their bill…. N.B. From April 2025 this has now been dropped to 150%
…Boasting more than 50 beaches, ranging from tiny coves to golden sand stretches, Pembrokeshire county has long been a firm favourite with tourists and has the second-highest number of second homes in Wales after Gwynedd which is further north.
However, Tenby’s economy in particular is being killed as second-home owners can swerve the premium by putting their homes up for sale.
Carol Peett, a buying agent at West Wales Property Finders, http://www.westwalespropertyfinders.co.uk “I have been absolutely swamped with it. In Tenby there are just so many houses on the market.”
Carol Peett told the Sunday Times: “The situation is a nightmare – total disaster. It’s killing the economy totally. There are loads of empty houses on the market that were holiday cottages. “People aren’t buying them. The local people can afford things under £250,000. A £750,000 house is never going to drop by enough.”
Councillor John Brynmor Hughes told the Express: “we depend on tourism, farming and the building industry. We have nothing else. If we drive tourism away we have nothing. Our children will have no future here.”
The Daily Express – 3rd April 2025 –https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2036346/Wales-crackdown-second-homeowners-backfires
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