An area hit by some of the highest level of property taxes in the UK has a glut of landlords and second home owners wanting to sell.

An article in the Financial Times reports that Gwynedd county in Wales already imposes a 150% council tax premium on additional homes, while across Wales additional homes attract a 5% surcharge on top of the normal Land Transaction Tax – the Welsh equivalent of stamp duty. 

On top of that, to register a holiday let as a business – and thus receive less punitive taxation – the property in question has to be made available to let for at least 252 days of the year and actually let for at least 182 days. And for approaching a year the local authority in the county have adapted a so-called Article 4 Direction, meaning owners have top win planning consent to turn a primary home into a holiday let or second home.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the housing market has reacted negavtively to such restrictions.

The FT reports that last month, June, a Rightmove estimate says there were 146% more homes on sale there than in June 2021. 

Local estate agent Martin Lewthwaite, of Beresfords, is quoted as saying around 600 properties were currently for sale across the Llyn Peninsula, a popular tourist destination – double the number which would have been on sale at this time in past years.

And Knight Frank is quoted as stating that the number of sales agreed in Gwynedd fell 34.3% between 2021 and 2024, while house prices in the county have risen 24% in that period against an all-Wales norm of 31%. 

Despite a 295% increase in tax taken from additional home owners by Gwynedd council since 2019, the number of households presented as homeless – currently 956 – is up from the 745 before the sharp increases in measures against second home and holiday let owners.

You can read the FT piece in full here, although for some readers it may be behind a pay well: https://www.ft.com/content/09514b0c-07e3-4649-a6de-7104572470c8