Developers seek to turn empty holiday homes into permanent housing

Dale Spridgeon, Local Democracy Reporter

Developers are calling for planners to consider a scheme to turn 14 long-term empty holiday properties into residential dwellings.

A planning application submitted to Anglesey County Council described how the properties were being “restricted” for sale by conditions which limited their use to holiday lets, preventing their use as family homes.

The proposal described how 14 of 16 properties built in the second phase of a holiday home development at Brynteg had remained empty for years following  tax changes.

It also noted that an earlier phase of 20 homes built nearby, before the changes, had “sold quite quickly”.

The properties are located by the B5108, close to a golf club, and in a popular holiday destination village near the seaside town of Benllech.

The details have come in a full application for the change of use of 14 holiday units into permanent open market residential dwellings at the Storws Wen site.

The application has been made by Colette Cartwright through the agent Simon James of P.Land Development  Consultants, Ltd.

The proposal included a planning statement which it said had been prepared to “support a planning application for the change of use of 14 residential dwellings restricted by condition to holiday home occupation (no time limit) and to full residential dwellings (C3).”

The application had described how the houses had become “unsaleable” due to the impact of  “increased taxation” imposed on holiday homes.

It outlined how the earlier, phase one scheme for 20 homes,  also built by the applicant under a separate planning permission, had started in February, 2020.

A document noting the marketing history said these had been “marketed successfully in 2021 and 2022”, during the  Covid period “in a much stronger, less restricted market”.

The application stated the phase had been completed by Easter, 2022, and  the dwellings had been “marketed and had sold very quickly”.

However, it was noted “this took place prior to the tax changes brought into place by the Welsh Government to deter the growth in holiday and second homes in favour of primary residential uses, and which, in line with their objectives, have dramatically affected the local property market”.

Despite “active marketing” of the phase two properties,  it stated that only two had sold.

“The overall site was constructed to provide 16 dwellings under a series of planning permissions,” the application documents stated.

“Since completion, at the end of 2023, only two of the dwellings have been sold,”

The houses were described as being of a “contemporary design” and provided three bedroomed, semi-detached dwellings (three family bedrooms, one en suite, family bathroom, kitchen/dining room, utility room and toilet and separate living room.)

The planning statement added: “The  14 unsold dwellings at Storws Wen, have been widely marketed over two years but are unsaleable because of the impacts of the increased taxation.

“This is not only a matter that influences the price that may be paid to purchase dwellings but also creates a longer term liability for owners by virtue of the ongoing council tax payments.

“The refusal to consider the properties as general market housing, taking into account also the shortfall in housing supply and likely increases demand, is at odds with the direction of travel of national planning policy, and furthermore contradicts the intentions of the taxation system, to reflect the political objective of addressing a shortage of local family housing.”

It also stated: “The marketing of the phase two scheme did not replicate the success of phase one scheme due to the impacts of the increase in transaction tax for second homes/holiday rentals, the increase in Council Tax for second/holiday homes resulting in premium charges even if occupied, a change in the general view of holiday/second homes and their impacts on the local community and consequent changes in the housing market.”