The Generation Rent group has thrown its weight behind a ban on mortgages for holiday homes buyers - and its chief has described holidays as “luxury”.
The statement follows news that the Leeds Building Society is banning mortgages for buyers of holiday lets in two popular parts of the country for a 12 month pilot period. This will affect the North Norfolk and North Yorkshire council areas: the ban is to come in from the end of next month.
The society says it wants more emphasis placed on increasing the supply of homes, and a statement explains: “The chosen postcode locations will be added to the building society’s systems to prevent any holiday let mortgage applications received in those areas from being approved. Existing holiday let borrowers are unaffected.”
According to Generation Rent, there are more than 73,000 holiday homes in Great Britain, with latest figures showing an annual increase of 7,000.
Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, says: “The massive increase in short-term holiday lets has seen renters turfed out of our homes and priced out of our communities. Generation Rent is pleased that Leeds Building Society is acting on this issue and prioritising the necessity of homes over the luxury of holidays.
“This trial to restrict mortgage lending on holiday lets is a forward-thinking step that will hopefully help to improve the situation for renters in North Norfolk and North Yorkshire.
“While the government must do more to stop the haemorrhaging of homes into the holiday let sector, Generation Rent are encouraged that lenders have identified the problem too. The more that can be done to stop rents rising and help tenants to stay in our communities, the better chance we will have to be in position to buy our own homes one day too.”
The building society’s chief executive, Richard Fearon, says: “This is another example of how we’re putting homeownership within reach of more people generation after generation. In some areas, holiday lets have grown to have a significant stranglehold on the pipeline of homes available for local people to live in and we want to play our part in removing it.
“There have been a range of measures introduced by Government over recent years to give local areas additional powers to restrict holiday lets. This adds to their arsenal of options and does so in a way which leaves power in the hands of local communities.
“We will learn through the trial how effective this measure can be in increasing supply of residential homes and gain greater insight on steps that can make a positive difference.”
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Not a surprise, they are a miserable bunch 🤣 always complaining about something or other.. I guess if landlords cannot go down this route then they will just evict and sell up 💰 either way the tenants are out.
Generation Rent how many do you house ?, so you don’t house any that’s big of you, you should make all the laws then.
First drive out Private landlords or force them to switch to Holiday let’s / AirBnB now complaining about what they have caused and want more legislation for the damage they done. Causing mayhem for
Renter’s and homeless,
It doesn’t matter what Leeds Building Society wants they’ll be part of the big boys group looking after them.
It won’t help people to buy that haven’t the money to buy, just reduce the accommodation available put the dampers on Tourists who’s bringing much needed money to the area.
If they are a Mutual who’s interest are they looking after and who is pulling the strings.
Unfortunately this nonsense will continue until it finally dawns on their members that they now don't have a job because the bar or whatever has closed down due to lack of customers and they still can't buy anywhere because they don't have a salary....
A job? 😱 GenRent supporters are usually activists or influencers.😉 They don’t have real jobs that contribute to the economy.😀
Banks lend money in order to make a profit, so I expect they will continue to do so
Don’t worry when they find their business has dropped off they’ll be glad to lend to anyone.
Have they banned holiday lets or have they just withdrawn from a geographical area ? Other lenders will take over the demand surely as this is just one lender. One Lender cannot ban something.
Whilst I believe it's a good stance to promote housing ownership in the area I'd hardly call it a ban and with other lenders continuing to operate in the area fail to see how this can be an effective unilateral decision by the lender. Time will tell.
"Generation Rent backs building society’s holiday lets mortgage ban"
Ha ha ha... OF COURSE THEY DO!!!
Would we expect anything else?
These morons would support anything that caused problems for landlords.... No news here... Nothing to see folks... Move along... 😂
It will be interesting to see how much future Buy2Let business drops for Leeds BS.
Surely the headline should be "Generation Rant wants to ban more affordable holidays in the UK"!
Do Generation Rant never let up?!!
All they are doing is driving more landlords away.
No, they don't and sadly yes they will :(
Generation Rant don’t really give a fig about promoting tenants interests that’s just a front to cover their ideological leftist view of the world. Anything, and above all in the PRS, that includes a hint of capitalism they will want to sh…t on. Tenants are convenient pawns in their political gaming.
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