Telegraph advises readers to buy holiday home in ‘more affordable’ Fishguard rather than Tenby amid housing crisis

The Telegraph newspaper has advised their readers to buy a holiday home in “more affordable” Fishguard rather than Tenby amid a campaign against the housing crisis in the area.

Nearby Parrog beach was the site of one of Wales’s biggest housing crisis protests last year as hundreds came together to call on the Welsh Government to tackle the second homes crisis in Wales.

But the Telegraph have now advised holiday homeowners to buy there instead as the area has a worse “reputation” than Tenby and therefore prices are lower.

Due to being “on the county’s slightly less accessible north coast” and its “boxy houses” Fishguard’s homes were cheaper but “there is still room for growth” in house prices, the newspaper said.

“Fishguard is a town of two halves: the old town and harbour, with its narrow streets and cute restaurants, is pretty and was used as the backdrop for classic films like Under Milk Wood with Richard Burton and Moby Dick with Gregory Peck,” they said.

“But the main town is more workaday – think streets and streets of bungalows and boxy houses.”

The article quotes  West Wales Property Finders who say: “Now that there is a bypass the town doesn’t get any of the ferry traffic, but it still hasn’t shaken off that reputation.”

‘Grave concern’

Last October 200 people came together on Parrog beach to call on the Welsh Government to tackle the second homes crisis in Wales.

The rally called on the Welsh Government to “treat the housing crisis as a real crisis” and not to “just conduct a consultation to discuss the issue”.

Heledd Evans from Trewyddel told S4C that she had been unable to buy a house in her community.

“After I got a job and so on I want to buy a house in the near future, but things are looking pretty uncertain at the moment in terms of housing availability,” she said.

“Once they are on the market they go straight away for prices that are out of my reach.”

Hedd Ladd-Lewis, one of the organizers, said he had decided to organise the protest in order to get to grips with the housing problem in the area.

“I grew up in Trefdraeth and the town has changed completely,” he said.

“There is grave concern about the future of Welsh as a community language as house prices deprive local people of the right and ability to live in their communities and as more houses are bought as second homes and AirBnBs.

“There is more rent poverty as families have to pay unreasonable rent in the private sector, and which local person can afford to pay £400,000 for a terraced house? So what will the future of primary school be? We’ve seen what has happened in Abersoch recently.

“The average house in the county is £227,000, but three-bedroom houses sell for almost £400,000 in areas such as Trefdraeth.

“As the county’s average wage is £26,466 it is very difficult for local people, especially young people, to buy a house to live locally.”