The areas where one in ten addresses are used as holiday homes

One in 10 homes is now used as holiday rentals in seven parts of England and Wales, official data shows.

At the top of the list is the Salcombe, Malborough and Thurlestone area of ​​South Hams, which has 171.9 holiday homes for every 1,000 properties.

Meanwhile, the coastal area of ​​Abersoch and Aberdaron in Gwynedd in Wales came second with 153.3 holiday homes per 1,000 homes.

The rest of the seven are made up of two areas in Cornwall and three in North Norfolk, according to the Census data from the Office for National Statistics.

In Cornwall, the areas of Trebetherick and Whitecross, along with Padstow and St Issey, are third and fourth respectively.

Meanwhile, in Norfolk’s areas of Brancaster, Burnham Market and Docking, Hunstanton and Wells and Blakeney all have more than 100 holiday homes per 1,000 homes, making up the rest of the list.

About 70,000 second addresses were used as holiday homes, visited by more than 200,000 people in England and Wales, the ONS says.

Holiday homes accounted for 4.1 per cent of all second addresses and were particularly concentrated in coastal areas, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty or national parks, including the Lake District, Dartmoor and Eryri (Snowdonia).

The ONS said the Census 2021 data on second addresses includes only people who usually live in England and Wales who said they spend at least 30 days a year at the address.

The total number of second addresses used as vacation homes, and the number of people using them, is likely to be higher, it suggested.

The South West and Wales

As a whole, the South West had the highest concentration of holiday homes compared to other English regions and Wales, with 7.5 for every 1,000 homes.

This was followed by Wales, with 6.9 holiday homes for every 1,000 homes. London had the lowest with 0.6 per 1,000.

The figure was higher in municipalities known as popular tourist destinations. In South Hams in Devon there were 44.1 holiday homes for every 1,000 homes.

This was the highest rate of any council area in England and Wales, with the exception of the Isles of Scilly, which have a particularly small resident population.

South Hams has a long coastline and is home to the southern part of the Dartmoor National Park, as well as the South Devon Area of ​​Outstanding Natural Beauty.

South Hams was followed by Gwynedd in North Wales at 41 per 1,000 homes, which includes most of the Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park, North Norfolk at 38.7 per 1,000 and the Isle of Anglesey at 32.9 per 1,000.

Both the British and Welsh parliaments recently passed new laws to further regulate second home ownership.

Last year, the government changed the law so that second homeowners would pay council tax on properties that are not real vacation rentals.

Owners of a second home must now prove that holiday homes are rented out for a minimum of 70 days per year and can be rented for a minimum of 140 days.

The Welsh Government has recently increased its own letting requirements so that properties must be let for a minimum of 182 days per year and be available for a minimum of 252 days.

It has also increased the maximum council tax premium that municipalities can apply to second homes, to a maximum of four times the standard rate.

Popularity of staycations

Nearly half – or 48.5 per cent – of those using a second address as a holiday home traveled within Britain, up from 42.3 per cent in the 2011 census.

About two in five – 41.8 per cent – of those using holiday homes in Britain traveled less than 60 miles from their usual address.

And about one in 50 people who used a holiday home lived in the same municipality as their usual place of residence.

At a regional level, the use of holiday homes in the same area as habitual residence was most common in Yorkshire and Northern England.

About two-thirds of holiday home users in these areas came from the same region, 63.5 per cent from Yorkshire and the Humber, 63.2 per cent from the North East and 61.7 per cent from the North West.

Of the 93,650 Londoners who used a second address as a holiday home, almost a quarter traveled within the South, with 14.4 per cent traveling to the South East and 10 per cent to the South West.

Nearly two-thirds – 62.3 per cent – of Londoners using holiday homes traveled outside Britain, the highest proportion of any region in England or Wales. Only 0.7 percent stayed at addresses in London.