The seaside town with a problem but divided on the proposed cure
It’s nearing the end of the tourism season but Barmouth is still riding the crest of a wave. Popular for decades with visitors from the West Midlands, the town is still thriving even after a couple of patchy summers for weather, donkey ride trader Stephen Charles Staff explains.
It’s his 38th summer on the seafront in the Gwynedd town which he loves. “Barmouth is bustling, and has actually been thriving ever since lockdown,” the 62-year-old says. “We’ve had two pretty rubbish summers [for weather], but even so Barmouth has been tremendously busy. It’s a small seaside town but it’s very popular with a huge beach. Even at this time of the year we’re getting plenty of retired folk visiting. Yesterday the place was packed.”
Barmouth, which was named among the best places to live by the sea by the Sunday Times this summer, has relied on tourism for over a century. The sector contributes more than £1bn to Gwynedd’s economy and employs thousands of people with millions visiting annually. But new legislation on second homes has been brought in in an attempt to redress the huge pressure on housing that the demand for second homes has caused, and it hasn’t gone down entirely well.
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Cabinet members at Cyngor Gwynedd - Gwynedd council - approved a proposal in July through an article four directive to force people to get planning permission for a second home in the county. Designed to lessen the impact of second homes on the housing market in Gwynedd, the council said the county has a housing crisis which has been fuelled by second homes. But some estate agents say it will have an adverse effect and could crash the county’s housing market.
“Property prices have increased tremendously here which has put a lot of pressure on local people trying to buy,” Stephen, who is from Barmouth and is among the county's tens of thousands of Welsh speakers, says. “Unfortunately these are the times we’re living in. It’s definitely the talk of the county. I have two sons who cannot get on the property ladder because property is so expensive anywhere in the whole county of Gwynedd, not just Barmouth. That is partly because a huge influx of second homes has put a squeeze on the market. But on the other hand Barmouth does rely on visitors and second home owners. When the railways came in in the late 1800s the tourists came and the money came from the Midlands to build these beautiful properties. I would say more than 90% of businesses in Barmouth rely on tourism now.”
Gwynedd has one of the highest concentrations of second homes in the UK with around 40 second homes for every 1,000 homes. According to the ONS the average house price in Gwynedd was £196,000 in July 2024, down 3.8% from July 2023. That is significantly below average in Wales but the issue lies in what people tend to earn in Gwynedd and the opportunities for them.
According to council figures the average salary in the county is below £24,000, while ONS figures have Gwynedd bottom on salary in Wales and the ninth lowest paid county in the UK. More than 3,000 people in Gwynedd are on the council’s housing waiting list while the county’s population is more than 110,000 according to the ONS.
In the council's own report explaining the need for an article four directive the authority said: "It is hoped that introducing this measure will ensure better control of the housing stock, thus ensuring an appropriate provision of housing to contribute towards satisfying local needs. With the housing crisis that faces the residents of Gwynedd, there is a need to implement innovative measures to ensure that the existing housing stock is protected for the intended use and to provide homes for the households of Gwynedd."
The article four directive isn’t the only issue now facing second home owners in Gwynedd. In 2022 the council introduced a council tax premium on second home owners of 150%. The council could charge up to a 300% council tax premium and in other parts of Wales the premium is higher, such as in Pembrokeshire where the premium is currently set at 200%.
“I’m having customers telling me they’re selling their second homes over the money they’re costing in tax,” Stephen adds. “I hope they’ll still come to Barmouth. Some are saying they will keep coming and they’ll stay in B&Bs and caravans. We have five-star caravan parks here which are very popular.
“Where I keep the donkeys about half-a-mile outside Barmouth a woman there has a lovely cottage which is a second home. She’s been there for 55 years during the summers and holiday seasons but her primary home is in London. Now she said the tax has gone so high it’s more expensive to keep her property here than in London.
“The problem is I don’t think this will work because the properties that are going on the market are not affordable properties to the average person in Barmouth. My sons would have been able to buy them if it was 20 years ago. It can’t be the answer to the housing problem. They could build more affordable housing and put clauses in them where they should only be for local people.”
Aleksandra Przybysz, who runs Bermo Bistro in Barmouth with her partner Jose, has been in the town for eight years after they moved here from Spain. "We have a lot of people come to the bistro who have a second home nearby and we do rely on them," she explains. "But we appreciate it from the other side of the story too because many people can't even afford to rent here. It's very hard. There needs to be a balance. I don’t know how to do this because I’m not a politician. But I think maybe more houses in Gwynedd need to be just for local people. I hear a lot of people talking about this in Barmouth. It’s a huge problem of course."
Responding to concerns the new legislation will damage tourism in Gwynedd the council has said there is sufficient holiday accommodation in the county for tourists to meet the current need. Data the council has obtained shows holiday accommodation occupancy in Gwynedd during 2023 was "no higher than a monthly average of 63%".
Resident Glenis Bisson, 75, who is originally from Staffordshire but moved to Gwynedd where she brought up her three children, says the numbers show the problem is much greater than second home owners. “You can effectively discount the people on Gwynedd’s housing list from this debate because they wouldn’t be able to take these second home properties anyway. So the question I keep asking myself is where are the people who are going to buy the properties that they’re forcing on the market?
“I think it’s to do with the Welsh language. They have so many people taking the language over the border. My three are all Welsh speakers and they’ve moved to England. So many more are the same. But the youth aren’t leaving because there are no houses. They’re leaving because they have greater aspirations. They go where the opportunities are and where the opportunities will be for their children and that isn’t Gwynedd at the moment." According to ONS figures the population of Gwynedd declined from 121,900 in 2011 to 117,400 in 2021.
“If we’re not going to be so reliant on the hospitality industry then fine, but what else is there? We have to encourage people and companies to come into this area. But what article four has done is bring this English vs Welsh thing back to the fore. That makes people moving here from England uncomfortable.”
The council said it hopes "implementing article four will be a means of uniting and maintaining communities". "Securing control over the use of houses for holiday purposes will contribute towards maintaining a sustainable tourism sector, offering opportunities for businesses to truly flourish, and will lead to the creation of opportunities for people to live within their communities that will in turn lead to benefits such as creating a sense of community and supporting local services," the council report reads. "The proposed direction is not directed at any particular group. On the contrary, it would apply equally to all, without discrimination on the basis of nationality and ethnic or national origins."
But the issue has undoubtedly divided the county. Campaign groups have been created supporting and criticising article four and they have thousands of followers each, while the group People of Gwynedd Against Article 4 has raised money to fund a legal challenge.
One man who said he didn't want to be named because he keeps getting into arguments on the issue with his neighbours said he put his house on the market near Abersoch three months ago and hasn't had a single offer. "Mine is on the market and I haven't had a sniff," he said. "It's £299,000 and is in a beautiful location but we've had nothing. There's absolutely nothing going on. It's concerning."
Earlier this month council planners in Gwynedd rejected a scheme to build 18 affordable homes in the "significantly" Welsh speaking village of Botwnnog due to the feared impact on the Welsh language as well as a "lack of need" for the homes. Botwnnog’s community council was one of the many objectors, believing the houses would constitute an “over development” and the homes could go to non-Welsh speakers.
Resident Ian Taylor, 56, who moved to the county from Stockport eight years ago having holidayed here since he was a child, said: “The fundamental issue is the lack of affordability, not the lack of affordable housing. Look at Abersoch. Abersoch has some top quality shops. It has Fatface, White Stuff, Joules. Those shops would not exist in areas that haven’t got a decent economy and our decent economy depends on tourism and has done for decades. And what about the people who work to supply the tourism industry? What do they do when people decide to go abroad instead of coming to Abersoch? The answer has to be a multi-faceted approach. Yes, more affordable and properly affordable homes should be built, but affordable against affordability criteria.”
Abersoch estate agent Rhys Elvins says: “Article four will restrict home owners selling in an open market, mainly the residents of Gwynedd. If someone’s home is within local affordability then that won’t pose a problem, but if the property is worth £500,000, for example, the resident will be limited to finding a buyer who wants to live at the property and that buyer won't necessarily be local. They’ll likely be retired. So you’re creating a niche market.”
Rhys says he has seen a clear pattern in “more home owners selling up and more people holiday letting to cover costs, sometimes unwillingly,” following a hike in council tax premiums on second homes. Last year the county saw a sharp drop in the number of second homes and long-term empty properties. The council’s research revealed there were more than 500 fewer second homes in Gwynedd subject to the tax in November 2023 compared with November 2022.
Asked if he felt changes to second home legislation in Gwynedd could enable more local people to get onto the property ladder, Rhys replies: “Not at all. It could do quite the opposite. Why invest in a freehold property in Gwynedd as a resident when you are going to be capped on value because the council wants to control who you can sell your asset to?”
The council report reads: "It is difficult to measure the true impact of introducing the proposed article four direction on property value, mainly because there are several factors that can influence value. Should a property's value fall after implementing the article four direction, we consider that it would be difficult to conclude indisputably that this is attributed directly to the implementation of the article four direction."