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Chris Bailey, national campaign manager for Action on Empty Homes, welcomed LBS’ decision.
“If the dwelling is not for residential use, it is a travesty to refer to it as a ‘home’. Second homes and short-term rentals, or whole-house Airbnbs, don’t house anyone at all, so they’re not houses anymore,” Bailey said.
“It’s time to prioritize building and lending to those who need homes to live in, not those with the richest pockets, who see housing as just an investment opportunity.”
“These so-called ‘real estate investors’ literally take away houses of those who need to live there and raise prices and rents of the remaining residential stock accordingly.
Daniel Wilson Craw, deputy director of Generation Rent, also said LBS’ stance was a good step in tackling affordability, but added: ‘If their concern is specifically home ownership, they should stop as well. to lend to owners.
There have been measures in recent weeks to clamp down on the number of second homes and holiday homes flood the housing market.
The Welsh government announced planning and tax changes in early July while local councilors in Brighton drew up plans to become the first city in the UK to ban second homes.
Timeshare was one of the factors identified by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation last week as a driver of the lack of affordable housing.
The anti-poverty charity found that the number of adults owning multiple properties has jumped 147% since 2000, while the number of 16-34 year olds owning property has fallen by 38%.
JRF called for mortgage regulations to be revised to prioritize lending to first-time buyers over homeowners – a move LBS anticipated.
The aim, said JRF senior policy adviser Darren Baxter, was to redistribute the UK housing market, reducing the size of the private rental sector and opening doors to home ownership and housing. social.
“The right to buy and the expansion of the private rental sector following the global financial crisis have already shown that rapid changes in housing distribution are possible,” Baxter added.
“Reforming the private rental sector by changing the distribution of housing within it should be the gateway to further fundamental reform of the housing market. Such reforms would ensure that the housing market supports those looking for a place to call home rather than those looking for assets to invest in.
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