"Even though I do acknowledge that a lot needs to happen in order to develop the process, we need to push forward for a more effective planning law in order to control the housing market here. "It appears that the government is steering into the right direction, but in my opinion, this is not a time to rejoice - there's a lot to do. This has been a long time coming with a lot of people dedicating their time to make change, such as Rhys Tudur and Simon Brooks. "They have faced their fair share of obstructions. Ymgyrchwyr yn erbyn argyfwng ail dai, Hawl i Fyw Adra, yn cerdded o Nefyn i swyddfa Cyngor Gwynedd yng Nghaernarfon.
"It hasn't been easy for the Welsh Government," Mr Williams told WalesOnline.Ĭampaigners against second homes emergency, Hawl i Fyw Adra ('Right to live at home') marching from Nefyn to Cyngor Gwynedd offices in Caernarfon. The councillor comes from Nefyn - a town which has seen a dramatic increase in house prices during the pandemic as city dwellers escaped from the city and headed to rural Wales for a more peaceful life. 'They are showing that they are one of us'Īccording to Gwynedd County councillor Gruffydd Williams, the emergency has been at hand "for a long time". WalesOnline spoke to a few residents about their opinion on the pilot scheme, and looked at how it compares to schemes outside of Wales that are facing similar housing crisis.
In the ward of Abersoch, there were 131 holiday homes in the Abersoch ward with 59 in Llanystumdwy and 99 in Criccieth. Ward-level taken from the Valuation Office Agency by Dafydd Elfryn shows how closely high house prices are correlated to high levels of second home ownership. In the area around Abersoch at the tip of Pen Llŷn, average household income was £34,900 in 2018, according the ONS. House prices at these levels are quickly out of the reach for people in an area like Gwynedd where average household incomes are lower than in many other parts of the UK. Surrounding areas on the south coast of Pen Llŷn also have average prices above the Wales average recorded by the ONS of £196,000 according to its latest data. The area around beautiful Abersoch already has an average property price of £437,500, according to ONS data for small areas. Yet data already shows how large the problem is that the policy will need to tackle. The second phase of the pilot "could involve making changes to planning, taxation and tourism systems," according to the Welsh Government. One consultation that is being launched is on the use of a "class order" in planning to allow councils to demand separate planning applications for second homes or short-term holiday lets. It says the minister, Julie James, is "keen to look at shared equity schemes, rental solutions and what we do with empty homes" to help young people onto the property ladder locally. The Welsh Government is as yet tight-lipped about what policies it hopes to test out in Dwyfor and how long the pilot project will last before other areas of Wales are brought in. In places like Brittany, people call for taxes on buyers. Salcombe is trying to follow suit using a different mechanism. St Ives, Fowey Megavissey ban all new homes being sold as secondary residences. Jersey divides homes into ones that can be sold on the open market and ones that have to be kept on the local market. In 1971, more than 80% spoke Welsh.Īlmost certainly for these reasons Dwyfor has been chosen by the Welsh Government to pilot radical new policies to ensure that local people are not priced out of buying their own homes and don't find themselves being forced out of their communities.Īcross other parts of the UK and the world policies used to tackle second homes have included laws, like Switzerland's Lex Weber, which set a cap on the percentage of homes that can be secondary residences. One of the five historic districts of Gwynedd, it includes the beautiful Llŷn peninsula as well as the towns of Criccieth and Porthmadog and was named for the Afon Dwyfor which runs from the foothills of Snowdonia to the sea past Llanystumdwy, the childhood home of David Lloyd George.Ī study found that more than 70% still speak Welsh here and that the percentage of young people speaking the language is among the highest in Wales - yet like so many other places, its character and language is feared to be under threat as the popularity of second homes drives up property prices. Protected by the great peaks of Snowdonia on one side and the Irish sea on the other, the area known as Dwyfor has largely kept its language and communities despite its huge tourist appeal.