Parts of Wales have seen a dramatic increase in holiday home users over the last decade, according to new data. This week the ONS published their analysis of the Census 2021 data, which revealed the hotspots where second addresses are used as holiday homes in England and Wales.
Over recent years the influx of second homes in rural parts of Wales has widely been discussed with the focus very much on its impact on the Welsh language and people being priced out of their local communities. The Welsh Government has vowed to tackle these issues with various new policies including allowing county councils to increase council tax premiums as well as making changes to the criteria for self-catering accommodations.
According to ONS more than one in 10 addresses are used as holiday homes in some areas of England and Wales, which means that around 70,000 second addresses were used as holiday homes and visited by more than 200,000 people. The data found that holiday homes accounted for 4.1% of all second addresses and were mainly concentrated in coastal areas, areas of outstanding natural beauty or national parks including the Lake District, Dartmoor, and Eryri.
Read more: Second home owners may need planning permission with rule change proposed in one part of Wales
While Cornwall had the highest numbers of holiday homes and people who use them – with 6,080 holiday homes and 14,230 holiday home users – South Hams in Devon and Gwynedd in north Wales had the highest proportions of holiday homes. In Gwynedd there were 41 holiday homes for every 1,000 homes.
This meant that for every 1,000 usual residents in the county 79 people were using holiday homes there in 2021 – 9,270 people in total, which was an increase from 63.9 per 1,000 in 2011. It comes after Cyngor Gwynedd recently decided to proceed with their plans to control the use of houses as second homes or holiday lets under new planning legislation. Second home owners in the county may need planning permission to convert their property into second homes or holiday lets in the future. You can read more about this potential planning legislation here.
Meanwhile neighbouring Isle of Anglesey saw the biggest increase in holiday home users in England and Wales over the past 10 years, according to ONS figures. The number of people using a second address as a holiday home on the island rose from 41.5 per 1,000 usual residents in 2011 to 63.3 per 1,000 in 2021, which is a total of 4,375 people.
In both the counties of Gwynedd and Anglesey the usual resident population had fallen by 3.7% and 1.2% respectively between the 2011 Census and 2021 Census. But the number of holiday home users had risen.
In west Wales Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion also saw an increase in the number of people using a second address as a holiday home. In Pembrokeshire the number increased from 35.2 to 45.2 in the past decade while it went from 29.9 to 39.4 out of 1,000 usual residents in Ceredigion.
The figures also showed specific areas in Wales that were most affected by second homes based on the number of second homes in every 1,000 dwellings. Most of these areas were in Gwynedd, Anglesey, and Pembrokeshire, as seen on the map above. Abersoch and Aberdaron in Pen Llyn saw the highest number of second homes per 1,000 dwellings with 15.3 while neighbouring area of Pwllheli and Morfa Nefyn was ranked in ninth place with 5.88 second homes per 1,000 houses.
Tywyn and Llangelynnin, which is also in Gwynedd, saw the second highest number of second homes per 1,000 with 9.05 while Tenby and Caldey in Pembrokeshire was ranked in third position with 7.4. On Anglesey, Bodedern and Rhosneigr had the highest number of second homes per 1,000 dwellings on the island and the fifth rank in the whole of Wales with 6.38 while Llain-goch and Valley came in sixth position with 6.14 out of 1,000 dwellings.
| Rank | Area | Second homes per 1,000 dwellings |
| 1 | Abersoch & Aberdaron | 15.3 |
| 2 | Tywyn & Llangelynnin | 9.05 |
| 3 | Tenby & Caldey | 7.4 |
| 4 | Harlech & Llanbedr | 6.89 |
| 5 | Bodedern & Rhosneigr | 6.38 |
| 6 | Llain-goch & Valley | 6.14 |
| 7 | Saundersfoot | 6.08 |
| 8 | Rhos-y-bol, Marian-glas & Moelfre | 5.98 |
| 9 | Pwllheli & Morfa Nefyn | 5.88 |
| 10 | St Davids & Letterson | 5.8 |
Interestingly the ONS figures also showed holiday home locations and where their users lived. Wales was the most common destination in the UK for people from the West Midlands in England and the northwest of England – the former had 22.4% of people who used a second address as a holiday home travelling to Wales while the latter had 22.2%.
In total 20,045 people from these areas travelled to Wales, accounting for more than half of the 36,370 people who used holiday homes in the country. Among all people from Wales who used a second address as a holiday home more than half (53.8%) travelled to addresses within the country. Slightly over a third, or 34%, travelled outside the UK, which was the lowest proportion of holiday home users who travelled abroad compared with English regions.
Around one in 10, or 11.3%, of Welsh holiday home users travelled to England, which was just under 2,000 people and more than half of those used addresses in the southwest of England. The most common area people travelled from to holiday homes in Gwynedd and the Isle of Anglesey was Cheshire with 6.4 per 1,000 local residents coming from Cheshire East and 4.8 per 1,000 from Cheshire West and Chester.
Pembrokeshire was the most common destination for holiday home users from Wales. Of the 45.8 people per 1,000 local residents who used holiday homes in the county almost two-thirds, or 62.7%, were from Wales, predominantly the south. All 10 local authorities with the largest proportion of holiday home users travelling to Pembrokeshire were in south Wales with the highest proportions from Rhondda Cynon Taf (5.3 per 1,000 local residents) and Cardiff (4.6 per 1,000).
