Priced Out: The Truth About Holiday Homes | ITV Tonight

It’s estimated that nearly half a million properties in the UK are second homes, used mainly as rental properties. The housing crisis in Britain is not slowing down. Is the answer to limit second holiday home purchases? Or will this have a negative impact on tourism? Helen Skelton has been finding out.

Mary grew up in Whitby and lives in rented accommodation with her two young children. 

Mary says: “I'm a professional. I work as a solicitor, I’ve had my wages matched by local standards. But to be able to get a mortgage on my own. A three bedroom house is still out of reach .. I know absolutely loads of people who can’t afford to buy, they can’t even afford to rent..”

The town recently made headlines when over 2,000 local residents voted to say they were in favour of allowing all new build homes to be reserved for local residents only to live in.

Dave owns two second homes in Whitby that he rents out as holiday lets he said:

“I think it's a very, very different prospect taking old housing stock, perfect for holiday lets compared to new builds being used as second homes. [...] If someone's taking a new build, using that as a second home it’s detrimental, as far as I'm concerned.”

Samantha has always worked in the tourism industry in Cornwall, she was recently given a section 21 eviction notice from her landlord and had two months to move out of her rented accommodation with her partner and her teenage step son. They were unable to find a property to rent and moved into her partner's sister’s home.

Samantha says: “very quickly, it became apparent that that two months was not long enough to secure anywhere and it also became very apparent that within the years that we'd been out of looking for private rent, that the prices had actually gone beyond our capabilities to pay.“

Over in Keswick in the Lake District it’s a very similar situation for Bryan and his partner Hayley who is expecting their first child. They are now living with Bryan’s parents because they can’t afford to rent another property in Keswick.

Bryan says: “I don't really want to be putting all the pressure on the parents. We were in a little bungalow, literally just around the corner. But the rent just got so high there. I just couldn't afford it”

Find out more about how the second homes crisis is affecting people across the nation, and what community leaders and experts think can be done to help solve the problem. 

On this evening at 8:30pm on ITV on Priced Out: The Truth About Holiday Homes?

USEFUL LINKS:

Housing, Citizens Advice 

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/ 

 

National Housing Federation

https://www.housing.org.uk/ 

Shelter - The Housing and Homelessness Charity

https://www.shelter.org.uk/ 

Second Homes and Empty Properties - Council Tax information

https://www.gov.uk/council-tax/second-homes-and-empty-properties 

New Tax Rules for Council Tax on Second Homes - Wales

https://gov.wales/new-tax-rules-second-homes