Cornwall’s idyllic coastal towns might soon see beaches bereft of tourists, with increasing alarm among experts.
Travel agencies have sounded the alarm as a number of Brits are choosing cheaper holidays abroad over local staycations which is wreaking havoc on the industry. The surge in utility costs and council tax is making it harder for Airbnb and vacation property owners to keep businesses afloat in the UK.
Zak Ali, a commercial leader at Together Travel, said travel agents are staring down the barrel of mass job cuts due to a shortage of available properties. He said: “Agents are losing properties as a direct result of not being able to deliver on bookings because of the uncertainty on the market.”
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Additionally, property owners are getting hit by the axing of the Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHL) next year. FHLs, which were short-stay holiday rentals benefiting from tax breaks, are set to be stripped of these perks from April 6, 2025, escalating costs for owners.
Mr Ali noted impending changes to FHL regulations are causing widespread worry and complications, leading many owners to offload their properties. Starting next year, revenues and profits from FHLs will merge into the owner’s wider property business and be taxed similarly to all other property earnings and capital gains, reports Express.co.uk.
This comes alongside a looming 100% hike in council tax for Cornish domiciles classified as second homes, also effective from April 2025. Mr Ali has highlighted the current struggle in the property industry to retain staff, as there are not enough homes for employees to manage. He said: “I know for a fact larger agencies who have a lot of staff have been making redundancies because of lower expected income and the dwindling numbers of properties.”
According to the latest house price index by property website Zoopla, Truro in Cornwall experienced the largest surge in homes for sale in September compared to any other region in the country.
The market saw a 47 per cent increase in properties last month in Truro and surrounding areas compared to the average for the previous six Septembers. Despite Cornwall being one of the UK’s top holiday destinations, it is losing out on a key supply of tourists as week-long package deals abroad become cheaper than holiday lets.
Mr Ali added: “We’ve seen it in the summer we’ve just had already, the destination has not been as strong as it has been historically.”
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