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).
This would help Seattle and Vancouver BC. I know we’re trying this in America, but it’s nice to see where it’s working.
It’s 150% if you fill in the form in Welsh. If you use English, it’s 300%.
I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.
I’m joking, but if it were possible, you’d need to pass at least a simple Welsh language test before buying a place in Wales. The locals have historically had a huge grievance with well-to-do English people buying up most of the pretty villages, pricing the locals out, and their lack of connection to the culture of Wales adds insult to injury. (There have been, IIRC, incidents of such second homes burning down, and nobody having seen anything.)
Quebec is taking notes.
Such an obvious thing too. Personally I’d rather they just ban ownership beyond a primary home until the crisis is over. But I get from a political point of view that it would be less doable.
That would work better, wouldn’t it. I bet they can pick their primary home or do they have to prove it? If they don’t have to prove it, it would be easy enough to say that the Wales home is their primary and their second home is in a place with not tax burdens. I guess we have to do this everywhere?
Most places have a specific occupancy duration to qualify as a primary home, right?
If not, that seems to be a good option. Primary counts if used by owner for living >240 days of the year (random number but figured it should be at least 3/4 a year or so). Like how we calculate whether someone counts as in state vs out of state for tuition.
Or impose a minimum radius around a property where you can’t buy a second one and then a minimum around both where you can’t have a third one and so on. Want to have a house in the city and a cottage >100km away in a straight line? Go ahead. Want to own a bunch of house and use them as short term rental units? Better be ready to waste your time traveling all over the country buddy!
Still too low tbh. No one should get a second until everyone’s got their first.
