Second home ownership used to be a very attractive option. You have a big discount on city tax. If you rent it for a few weeks, you could turn it into a business and claim all maintenance costs with taxes. If you took out a purchase mortgage to rent as a taxpayer at a higher rate, you effectively benefited from a 40% tax deduction on mortgage expenses. Given this package, it is not surprising that in the decade following the 2008 financial crisis, more second homes were bought than new ones.
But in recent years this has begun to change. England’s councils will soon be able to charge second home owners double council tax on unoccupied properties. In Wales, the CEO is