One of Wales’ top seaside towns risks becoming empty of tourists as a hike in council tax on second homes bites. Tenby’s cobble lined streets are flooded with ‘for sale’ signs after Pembrokeshire County Council slapped second-home owners with a 200 per cent premium on council tax last year – tripling their bill.
Around one in four houses are second homes or holiday lets in Tenby on the south Wales coast. The tax aimed to bring in over £10 million a year, however it seems to have backfired as a mass exodus has occurred as homeowners have been forced to sell up. Despite its remoteness from England, Pembrokeshire has long been dubbed ‘Little England’ thanks to having been English in language and culture for many centuries. The area saw a significant influx of English and Flemish settlers in the Middle Ages.
Boasting more than 50 beaches, ranging from tiny coves to golden sand stretches, Pembrokeshire county has long been a firm favourite with tourists and has the second-highest number of second homes in Wales after Gwynedd which is further north.
However, Tenby’s economy in paraticular is being killed as second-home owners can swerve the premium by putting their homes up for sale.
Carol Peett, a buying agent at West Wales Property Finders. “I have been absolutely swamped with it. In Tenby there are just so many houses on the market.”
In a town that relies on tourism, the tax is driving second home owners away. Currently 137 properties are for sale on Rightmove, with most boasting incredible water views far beyond the budget of first-time buyers.
Estate agent Carol Peett told the Sunday Times: “The sitation is a nightmare – total disaster. It’s killing the economy totally. There are loads of empty houses on the market that were holiday cottages.
“People aren’t buying them. The local people can afford things under £250,000. A £750,000 house is never going to drop by enough.”
This is despite prices plunging by 8.9pc in Pembrokeshire in the year to December 2024, according to Principality Building Society. The only authority that recorded a greater fall was Gwynedd where house priced tumbled by more than 12% year-on-year.
Councillor John Brynmor Hughes told the Express: “We depend on tourism, farming and the building industry. We have nothing else. If we drive tourism away we have nothing. Our children will have no future here.”
