Short-term lets account for 7% of total housing in holiday destinations
Short-term lets are slowly taking up more of the property market in popular holiday destinations, accounting for as much as 7% of total housing stock across these areas.
Research by estate agent comparison site, GetAgent.co.uk, has analysed data on active holiday rentals in 15 of the UK’s holiday hotspots, including Cornwall, Brighton and Scarborough.
The team discovered that there are 54,657 holiday lets in the country, making up 3.5% of total homes in these locations, an increase from 2.8% in 2019.
Cornwall topped the charts as the nation’s short-term let capital, as holiday rentals account for 7.4% of total homes in the area, up by 1.2% since 2019.
But Scarborough has seen the biggest takeover by holiday lets, with the rentals making up 7% of all homes within the town, the second highest number in the country.
This market share has increased by 2.3% since 2019, the biggest jump found by researchers.
Dorset came third, with holiday homes taking up 6.1% of the market share, an increase of 1.6% since numbers were last counted in 2019.
Co-founder and CEO of GetAgent.co.uk, Colby Short, commented: ‘Holiday lets are an understandably contentious subject and one that has really come to the forefront during the pandemic due to sky high demand for staycations while travel restrictions were in play.
‘At the same time, many traditional buy-to-let landlords have looked to holiday lets as a way of improving their financial returns, due to the far higher rental yield potential and following a sustained campaign by the Government to deter buy-to-let investment.
‘For many local residents, this upward trend will be unwelcome news, as the general consensus is that holiday lets put a further strangle hold on local housing availability, pushing the cost of both renting and buying out of reach.
‘Of course, the flipside is that these local economies rely heavily on tourism and a higher provision of holiday rentals helps to boost tourism spend which, in turn, has a positive influence on the wider local area.’
Photo by Darren Welsh