Council Tax on 2nd Homes Wales

[Taf]

From April this year, Welsh councils can set council tax premiums at 300% for second homes to help free up housing stock for locals.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-66739065

It won't free up homes, I fear. The extra cost will just be passed on to renters.

Originally Posted by Taf

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-66739065

It won't free up homes, I fear. The extra cost will just be passed on to renters.

Renters are responsible for paying the council tax, aren't they? So I don't think they would be impacted. It's unoccupied homes/holiday homes I think this will be impacted.

Originally Posted by Damien

Renters are responsible for paying the council tax, aren't they? So I don't think they would be impacted. It's unoccupied homes/holiday homes I think this will be impacted.

https://uklandlordtax.co.uk/council-...omes-in-wales/

Changes to the Non-Domestic Rating Order 2022 apply from 1 April 2023 as well. As of that date, self-catering properties must be available to let for at least 252 days in any 12-month period and must actually be rented for at least 182 days.

Using the new thresholds will ensure that self-catering properties are only classified as non-domestic properties if they are being used for business purposes for the majority of the year and make a substantial contribution to the local economy as a whole. Self-catering properties that fail to meet the new letting criteria on 1 April 2023 will be classified as domestic properties and will be subject to the same council tax as domestic properties.

Council tax premium exceptions have therefore been extended through new legislation. In addition, it will include properties that are subject to planning conditions that prohibit occupants from occupying those properties for the purpose of living as their sole or main residence or specify that they may only be used as holiday accommodation. When such properties do not meet the letting criteria for non-domestic properties, council tax will be charged at the standard rate, but no premium will be charged

I think this is different from renting from a buy-to-let landlord - this is specifically for second homes and holiday accommodation.

[tweetiepooh]

I still think that 2nd homes and holiday homes should incur VAT level surcharge on the purchase with a rebate if the property then becomes the main residence of the purchaser.

It's apparently a big issue that some of these places are basically dying because of holiday homes. The economy is dead for 9-10 months of the year because there are so few people living there during the winter months. The local people want to stay in their communities but they're being priced out by people from elsewhere who can not only afford two homes and only afford to keep one of them empty for most of the year!

So people who grew up there have to leave and the economy declines all so someone can holiday there. It's pretty bad.

That if they can afford to own multiple homes without even having to rent them out then maybe more council tax isn't the solution. They can afford that as well.

[Taf]

The locals seem to forget that the homes were sold by locals in the first place, or were new builds paid for by the "incomers".

Lies and rhetoric from Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour paint a picture of locals being "priced out of the housing market" and "the Welsh language being diluted by incomers" have been shown to be false again and again. Locals are in the buy-to-let game, and locals are moving away to find work away from the deserts of employment. Whilst relying on tourism for income, the same locals are moaning about tourists being there in the first place.

A huge growth industry in the same areas is chicken farms. The owners take advantage of unemployment rates to take on workers at Minimum Wage levels. But locals aren't interested, so "incomers" take the jobs. So the locals have something else to moan about, and the politicians are there to whip up the flames to gain support.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Damien

It's apparently a big issue that some of these places are basically dying because of holiday homes. The economy is dead for 9-10 months of the year because there are so few people living there during the winter months. The local people want to stay in their communities but they're being priced out by people from elsewhere who can not only afford two homes and only afford to keep one of them empty for most of the year!

So people who grew up there have to leave and the economy declines all so someone can holiday there. It's pretty bad.

That if they can afford to own multiple homes without even having to rent them out then maybe more council tax isn't the solution. They can afford that as well.

If you can't prevent people from acquiring second homes by tax disincentives then the only way surely must be by law.

[Pierre]

I wouldn’t want one home in Wales, never mind two.

Originally Posted by Pierre

I wouldn’t want one home in Wales, never mind two.

I only really cared for the south coast of wales for holidays, and even then, I dont think I'd want to live there.

Who do they think is going to buy all these 2nd holiday homes in their grand plan to drive the current owners away ?

[Russ]

People who are currently renting in the area

Originally Posted by Russ

People who are currently renting in the area

[tweetiepooh]

Originally Posted by Taf

The locals seem to forget that the homes were sold by locals in the first place, or were new builds paid for by the "incomers".

Lies and rhetoric from Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour paint a picture of locals being "priced out of the housing market" and "the Welsh language being diluted by incomers" have been shown to be false again and again. Locals are in the buy-to-let game, and locals are moving away to find work away from the deserts of employment. Whilst relying on tourism for income, the same locals are moaning about tourists being there in the first place.

A huge growth industry in the same areas is chicken farms. The owners take advantage of unemployment rates to take on workers at Minimum Wage levels. But locals aren't interested, so "incomers" take the jobs. So the locals have something else to moan about, and the politicians are there to whip up the flames to gain support.

Some of this is true but if there are disincentives to sell for holiday homes (VAT on the price tag) that deflates the prices and lessens the reason to sell for that purpose.


The picture is complex and "locals" do need local, all season employment as well as keeping pricing and services affordable to that local economy. I think a problem is that the changes are too rapid and things get unbalanced. The problem isn't money coming in, building up an economy, allowing locals to build up too but that a sudden inrush of money changes things too fast and there is no integration in either direction. Locals (feel) pushed out, priced out and those coming in don't then have a community to become part of and to contribute to. I have less time for those who buy up property just for investment and don't use it or only use it infrequently and don't want to be part of a community.

[Itshim]

Originally Posted by tweetiepooh

Some of this is true but if there are disincentives to sell for holiday homes (VAT on the price tag) that deflates the prices and lessens the reason to sell for that purpose.


The picture is complex and "locals" do need local, all season employment as well as keeping pricing and services affordable to that local economy. I think a problem is that the changes are too rapid and things get unbalanced. The problem isn't money coming in, building up an economy, allowing locals to build up too but that a sudden inrush of money changes things too fast and there is no integration in either direction. Locals (feel) pushed out, priced out and those coming in don't then have a community to become part of and to contribute to. I have less time for those who buy up property just for investment and don't use it or only use it infrequently and don't want to be part of a community.

The " problem" is keeping the Welsh speaking minority in the area, so they will continue to vote plaid, the party that keeps labour in power in Wales , forcing a dead language down everyone s throat. Trying driving in Wales , Welsh is first on signage so no hope of reading it . Even Aldi announce first in Welsh, l forget that so many of the population, wouldn't understand if it was in English first. or is it that it would then be pointless. My son speaks Welsh and has demonstrated only many occasions, how rude the native peoples of north Wales are, go into a shop speaking English see what happens, after on while he tells them in Welsh were to go, it's priceless to see there faces

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Itshim

go into a shop speaking English see what happens,

Ah that good old fallacy raising its head again. It's a total myth. It doesn't happen.

For the paranoid Englanders out there, it's not that we don't want or like you (my dad was, and my son is, half-English), it's about our own cultures and ways of life being eroded away.

Personally, it's about having fewer and fewer opportunities to buy a property in a town, and almost the country that I was born and grew up in, based on actions by people who don't live here most of the time.

There's nothing sinister or hateful about it, regardless of what the 'poor persecuted English' tell you.

[Mr K]

Time the Welsh 'took back control' imho. Good for them.