Second home owners in Wales face soaring council tax bills after Labour-Plaid deal.

I'm not one either, never have been.

take immediate and radical action to address the proliferation of second homes and unaffordable housing, using the planning, property and taxation systems

It will be interesting to see how this pans out - it could be a blueprint for the rest of the UK.

In London and elsewhere large blocks of flats are built and due to the very high prices are mainly sold to overseas investors, second homes for country-dwellers, and buy-to-let landlords. Sometimes there is a small part of the development of 'affordable homes' where some hapless young person can buy 25% of a £600,000 one-bed flat, and pay rent on the remaining 75%.

I am fortunate to live in a beautiful part of England, and worked in the village where I live for twenty-five years. I spent more than half of my life living and working in the industrial Midlands, parts of which are also beautiful.
There is a village near me where 64% of the houses (cottages), are second homes/holiday lets, occupied for a maximum of a quarter of the year. The shops, Post office and school are long gone, now 'bijoux residences' and it is a ghost village completely out of reach for families who work in the area. People working on factory benches, nurses etc would never be able to afford a second home, let alone a first one, and the rents charged for holiday lets are extortionate.
I hope the tax on second homes applies in England very soon.
Incidentally, my village, which is thriving but not pretty, is inundated with hundreds of new -build homes crowded together because the pretty villages are able to refuse to have them because they have no facilities.

We do have two little holiday cottages near to us owned by nurses, two income families I suppose who choose to spend their income on property in the U.K. Better than flying around the world.

using the planning, property and taxation systems

This indicates that the means to implement the policy are already in existence - just a matter of political will.

How many second homes are there in the UK, I wonder?

772,000 households in England have second homes. Of these, 495,000 are in the UK. The actual number of second homes is higher, as some households have more than one.

One in 10 UK adults, or 5.2 million people, own a second home, while four in 10 adults own no property at all.

I agree with everthing Easybee said.

LauraNorderr

We do have two little holiday cottages near to us owned by nurses, two income families I suppose who choose to spend their income on property in the U.K. Better than flying around the world.

No reason why the alternative should be 'flying round the world'. What would be wrong with staying at a local hotel or in B&B?

Why is it OK to deprive the country of desperately needed homes?

Flying around the world would leave properties local workers
could buy to live where they work . Or stay in hotels again leaving properties those who work in hotels could afford to buy.

I think you have a good point about London suffering equally in all this Riverwalk. It was impossible to keep good young teachers in our school because the cost of housing, (even if they had a partner) was sky high due to second home owners (often from overseas). Same for nurses.

Paying for hotels, flights, etc., is dead money whereas investing in a little bolt hole would make good sense for future security for those who are not rich enough to write off the loss.
Lots of empty semi derelict properties around the U.K. that could be brought up to date or rebuilt with the right investment to provide more housing, why penalise the few who’ve invested their own hard earned income in a second home.

Anniebach

Flying around the world would leave properties local workers
could buy to live where they work . Or stay in hotels again leaving properties those who work in hotels could afford to buy.

Local workers don’t exist without local jobs. This is why I feel we should invest in good high end local jobs first and the balance will follow.

Paying for hotels, flights, etc., is dead money whereas investing in a little bolt hole would make good sense for future security for those who are not rich enough to write off the loss.

Thus denying others the opportunity to have the security of just the one roof over their head.

why penalise the few who’ve invested their own hard earned income in a second home

To level things up a bit.
Fairness.
To get people out of rentals and into something which will provide more long term security.
Because a second home is a luxury/vanity/entitlement thing, not a necessity.
Because there is a housing shortage.
To keep small communities thriving.

It is awful the way property prices have been forced up and out of reach of locals. Yes, holiday homes bring in income to local businesses when they are occupied but that is not for a large part of the year. I have family in Wales and they have said that cottages are being purchased without even viewing them, it is the same in Cornwall and Devon. Locals do not enjoy the invasion of some people who do not understand the local way of life and breathe a sigh of relief when they return to their normal homes.

I started off saying I have mixed feelings and I do.
Just trying to balance the discussion really.
Maybe we’ll hear from some city dwellers with a bolt hole about their experience.

I certainly agree with some of your reasons Coastpath except this one:
Because a second home is a luxury/vanity/entitlement thing
As I said before, minds don't always work in the way things are perceived. Often minds just work with no hidden reasons in terms of acquiring a second home, amongst those I know anyway.

Maybe we’ll hear from some city dwellers with a bolt hole about their experience.
We did this in our mid 20s, and 30s, it was the right time because we could carry out all the essential works, employ locals (cleaner, gardener), spend cash in the community etc. There was no resentment locally, our children were invited to play with the children next door, we entered the dog shows, we made our property available to villagers who had relations coming to stay for a wedding. Friends for life.

We have 2 homes Coastalpath but Because a second home is a luxury/vanity/entitlement thing isn’t so in our case.

We had a semidetached family home for 35 years. Sold it and with the money, bought two very small apartments. One here and one in Spain. We live in both, six months of the year in each. We are not landlords. We never let either of them out.

Yes holiday homes bring in income but that's often sporadic, whereas if it's someone's actual home it would bring in more income to the area.

We have kept a small apartment in the UK when we moved to go and look after my parents when we retired. For us, we felt it was essential so we could come back at any time in an emergency with the family, or whatever, and not be dependent on our ACs or the 'State'. Before Covid, we came very regularly, but once since Covid- and will soon be there to be with family and UK friends over Christmas, and hopefully more often from 2022 again. It is not a 'holiday' home- but we both truly feel that our life is 50% shared with England, for all sorts of good reasons.

We have never rented it, but we have lent it to family and friends, for short and long stays, when times were hard for them, so not totally 'selfish'.

But you could rent it out to a family when you're not there couldn't you kali2? Even if it was only on a short term let, it would be better than them being in a hostel or a B&B.

The trouble with renting out, even on short term let is that you have to clear all personal stuff out, and you can't use it in an emergency if you need to.

It depends, I suppose, if you're paying full Council tax or not.

Our relatives do the same, Kali2 but let out their French home when they're here for a while.
Presumably they pay full Council tax here in the UK as they spend quite a bit of time here and taxes in France too.

greater powers for local authorities to charge council tax premiums and increasing taxes on second homes.
As long as it is not over and above normal Council tax rates which would be unfair imo.

Even with a short term let, the landlord is required by law to serve a section 21 giving the tenant eviction notice. Getting a tenant to leave who wants to stay is a very difficult and expensive procedure.

The section 21 gives a 4 month notice period so 6 months can easily become 10.

I’m puzzled as to why people seem to think it’s only young people in rural areas who can’t buy their own homes because of high prices.
Unless you live somewhere really dire (I shan’t give an example for fear of offending anyone but one or two spring to mind) it’s very difficult for young people everywhere.