Whitby
(Picture: Tim Hill/Pixabay)Residents in the Yorkshire coastal town of Whitby have voted in favour of imposing limits on the sale of second homes.
Families in the popular tourist hotspot said they had been priced out of the housing market with both rentals and ownership proving unaffordable.
House prices in the town rose by 17 per cent last year with an average asking price of £254,218, according to the property website Rightmove.
Almost 20 per cent of homes in Whitby are second homes or holiday lets, figures from Scarborough Borough Council reveal.
In a poll of the town’s residents on Monday, 93 per cent voted to restrict the sale of all new-build and additional housing to full-time residents.
The result of the vote, which had a turnout of 24 per cent, is not binding but could help shape local planning considerations.
Whitby Community Network, the organisers of the poll, said they hoped it would send a clear message that “change is needed”.
A spokesperson said: “The poll results clearly demonstrate the strength of feeling in the local community … We trust that our elected councillors will take note and take action.”
Tourist hotspots such St Ives, Cornwall, have previously introduced restrictions on new builds being sold as second homes.
Whitby was crowned Britain’s most in-demand seaside location in 2020 by Rightmove.
The seaside location is famed for its fishing history, the ruins of Whitby Abbey and its associations with Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Rightmove compared the volumes of people inquiring about homes for sale with the number of available properties and the general size of seaside locations to work out which places were most in demand.
Commenting on Rightmove’s findings, Nick Henderson, director of Hendersons estate agents in Whitby said: “One of the great things about Whitby is that there’s usually something going on all year round, it’s not just when the sun is shining.
“Since we reopened a few weeks ago we’ve been selling bigger homes a lot more quickly than before, as families are changing the way they live and are swapping a 10-minute commute into the office for a 10-minute walk to the beach instead.
“Holiday homes have always been popular, often apartments or cottages that have been refurbished to an incredibly high spec, but again there’s been a surge in recent weeks for these as people choose to make an investment now so they have somewhere for a staycation over the next few years instead of going abroad.”
