The state government levies a Land Tax on properties over a certain value (currently about $900,000) however this tax doesn’t apply to your principle place of residence. This is tax separate to the council rates.
For example when I owned a number of investment properties I had to pay Land Tax on them as their total value was over the threshold.
It seems a fairer way than allowing councils to apply rates penalties.
BTW The way to overcome this is to buy properties in different states.
That could be self defeating as it will deter landlords from buying neglected properties and after a full refurb letting out to local tenants. If that applied to my neck of the woods, I would cease scouring property for sale with an eye on possible future tenancies. Poor condition housing is not mortgageable, so this is where landlords slot in and return reconditioned properties to the rental scene.
Oh. That’s good news for landlords then but not so good for others who want a holiday home. What does it mean for those who maybe rent their second home out for most of the year either on long term let’s or perhaps as short term holiday rentals, how are they classified?
Or what if they say that’s there main home when it’s not and not have to pay extra council tax elsewhere in the UK?
Will this work the other way too since I have a friend whose main home is near Caernarfon but who bought a flat in London as she works there and obviously couldn’t commute and it made sense to buy rather than rent and she goes home once every other week or so. If council tax goes up for her then she’ll struggle to make ends meet.
I cannot speak for Wales but here, it is a mixture of second homes & older people selling higher value homes in cities & then retiring to our area. They push up the costs of homes & destroy life within villages.
Holiday home owners do not support the local economy like residents do. The village I lived in lost it’s bakery, it’s school, a butcher from a neighbouring village stopped delivering. The bus service stopped. The Taxi service stopped. The blacksmiths became a holiday home. The closest petrol station became a housing development. The village builder my father had worked for, developed it’s village base into a housing development & moved 15 miles away.
It is not just a village, it is also the surrounding towns & villages. holidaymakers do not buy cars locally, so dealerships closed & petrol stations closed or stopped opening evenings. Non seasonal pubs close, shops struggle out of season.
I cannot find a link to the story now, but several years ago. A paramedic applied for & was offered a role as a community based paramedic in the coastal town of Wells next the sea. But having been offered the job, he found that he could not accept it, as his pay as a paramedic meant he could not afford to buy a home there.
Second home owners, plus our local towns & villages becoming retirement homes for older incomers, is changing villages & towns & thus what do young people do? Schools close as older people do not have children & second home owners do not use local schools. Locals find they cannot afford to live there any more. Buisness move a few miles away to areas, where second homes & incomers are not an issue & get local staff. And amenities & services get damaged.
Weve often talked about what we’d do if we won a,shed load on the lottery and we think we’d not buy anywhere but just hire places around the world and stay there for as long as it interests us and we didn’t get bored. We’re at the stage where the number of actual personal things that we have could probably fit into a smallish box and things like cloths and cars could be replaced or hired when we moved, if we had done that sort of money. So moving would hardly be a big rigmarole and we could charity off what we’ accumulated when we move. Don’t see the need to own a big place at all so it wouldn’t burden local house prices.
A new licensing scheme for people who want to operate short-term holiday lets, such as Airbnb, is also planned.
First Minister Mark Drakeford and Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price made the announcement as made as part of their co-operation agreement.
The changes to planning regulations are expected to be made by the end of the summer and will introduce three new classes of property in the planning system: a primary home, second home and short-term holiday accommodation.
Local authorities will then be able to make amendments to the planning system, “where they have evidence”, to require planning permission for change of use from one class to another.
Under the new system, councils will also have the power to set a ceiling on numbers.
Such a scheme has been a long time coming - earlier may have been better when the most affected communities were still mostly Welsh.
Still, the situation has changed in favour of the Welsh people …
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