Owners of second homes in Wales are having to sell up. That’s no disaster: it’s a godsend | Will Hayward
www.theguardian.com
Council tax hikes on holiday homes aren’t ‘anti-English’ or detrimental to tourism. This is about preserving embattled communities, says Guardian columnist Will Hayward

To try to tackle this, the Welsh Labour government, alongside Plaid Cymru, introduced measures to curb second-home ownership. This included giving councils the ability to push council tax on second homes to 300% the usual rate. They also closed a loophole whereby second-home owners could register as a business in order to pay the much lower business rates.

Gwynedd council used these powers to hike council tax to 150% in April 2023. By the end of 2024, house prices had fallen by 12.4% as second-home owners tried to sell up. In Pembrokeshire, house prices fell by 8.9% after the council increased the council tax to 200% on second homes (though this was reduced to 150% recently).

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    9 小时前

    I’m talking about the ones who rent them, not people who have a cottage somewhere out in the boonies. You don’t want to have to travel hours every weekend just to clean up after your client.

    • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      8 小时前

      They don’t travel to clean up, they hire a cleaning company for a fraction of what they charged the guests. No-one’s travelling half way across the country every week to change the sheets and empty the bins.