The Secretary of State for Levelling Up Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, has today unveiled plans for short term lets including Holiday Lets (AirBNB et al) and Business Traveller Let properties to be required apply for planning permission from local authorities when seeking to convert from residential property to short term lets.
This is to protect both local workers and residents in tourist destinations and in busy business districts from being priced out of both the purchase and rental property markets. You only have to travel to popular desitnations in places like Cornwall or Wales to see the huge %s of property bought by non-locals and then let as holiday lets for tourists (that then become ‘ghost towns’ in winter or in ‘the city’ or university towns where frequent business or lecturer travellers are renting short term business lets whilst in the area, thus pricing locals out of the market.
The aim is to make property more affordable for locals and prevent the dilution of local communities as people are forced out of area due to a lack of affordable property to buy or rent.
The New Rules
Comment
We understand the housing crisis, the shortfall in new builds and locals being priced out of property but this is not all the fault of landlords.
This is a tough one to balance for protecting both seasonal trade and locals for access and affordability.
The National Register will be an interesting data tool both locally and nationally for future taxation of short term lets. Expect more taxation on short term lets and expect an exclusion from the small business rates exemption. We suggest short term lets will start to pay full business rates or the equivalent of council taxes, which they currently do not. This is not fair given it is locals that pay for additional refuse collection, street and beach tidies as well as the impact on local health and NHS facilities when many towns and village populations can double or treble in size during peak seasons.
The register will also bring in a new level of regulation for standards and safety in short term lets that has previously not been there when compared to residential buy to let property standards.
Proposals are currenty being debated through parliament so we have no set time scale as to when new rules will come into force.