Owners of second homes in Wales are having to sell up. That’s no disaster: it’s a godsend | Will Hayward
www.theguardian.com
Council tax hikes on holiday homes aren’t ‘anti-English’ or detrimental to tourism. This is about preserving embattled communities, says Guardian columnist Will Hayward

geteilt von: https://sh.itjust.works/post/38301389

To try to tackle this, the Welsh Labour government, alongside Plaid Cymru, introduced measures to curb second-home ownership. This included giving councils the ability to push council tax on second homes to 300% the usual rate. They also closed a loophole whereby second-home owners could register as a business in order to pay the much lower business rates.

Gwynedd council used these powers to hike council tax to 150% in April 2023. By the end of 2024, house prices had fallen by 12.4% as second-home owners tried to sell up. In Pembrokeshire, house prices fell by 8.9% after the council increased the council tax to 200% on second homes (though this was reduced to 150% recently).

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    8·
    6 hours ago

    Note that the UK does not have a property tax, and is unusual in doing so; I recall reading that it is the only G7 member to not do so.

    They do have a (mostly flat) council tax, and a transfer tax.

    We have a few states in the US that don’t, but normally there is an annual percentage tax on the value of a house. That varies by state, but is typically on the order of 1%.