Airbnb rentals ‘tearing the heart out’ of Lake District
Burgeoning holiday lets are reducing supply of homes and pushing prices out of sight, say residents
EVENING is falling in Chapel Stile, Cumbria, but only a few houses have their lights on. The windows of the rest are dark: they are holiday lets or second homes and no one is at home.
Chapel Stile is a Lakeland village in the Langdale Valley, and only 14 of its 164 homes are permanently occupied, residents say. For decades the number of second homes has been increasing in the area, along with short-term lettings offered by websites such as Airbnb. Furthermore, after two years in which more people have spent holidays in the UK, the number of holiday lets in South Lakeland has risen by 32 per cent, Tim Farron, its Liberal Democrat MP, said.
The dramatic rise in short-term accommodation has led to rocketing housing costs for local people and dwindling footfall for businesses in the area, which has prompted Mr Farron to take up the cause. Last month he raised the issue in a House of Commons debate, and he will soon set to discuss the matter with Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government (DHCLG).
Jean Birkett, a parish councillor who has lived in Chapel Stile all her life, said the village had changed before her eyes because of the burgeoning holiday accommodation business.
When she was a teenager, she said, the village was inhabited entirely by local people, working mostly in agriculture. It was a small, close community where “everyone knew everyone”, added Mrs Birkett. The village hall had “something on every night of the week”, whether it was Women’s Institute meetings, dances, hunt balls or drama club.
That bustling community life is almost entirely gone now, she said: “There isn’t even a bonfire now… It’s as dead as dead. In 20 years there won’t be anyone left.”
A quick search on Airbnb showed turned up least 30 properties in the village, and just outside it, that were listed for short-term lets, and there were others listed elsewhere.
It’s not hard to see why. Mrs Birkett pointed to a small, terraced, cottage that she lived in as a teenager. Its neighbour, an identical two-bedroom house, is listed on Airbnb for £940 a week, and boasts that it “was originally a Quarryman’s dwelling”.
Villagers have a hard time trying to buy, too. Jobs there tend to be in the low-paying service and tourism sectors, but homes sell for more than £1million.
People complain that the number of holiday rentals makes it almost impossible to find somewhere to live, especially as the village is in a National Park and there are strict building controls. So they have to move out of the area,
Carys Grady, 31, spent years looking for a rented home with her partner near Ambleside, on the banks of Lake Windermere, some four miles from Chapel Stile. She embarked on the search eight years ago, checking estate agents’ websites every day for new listings. It took two years to find one as the few properties that became available were quickly snapped up.
The couple eventually found a property, but discovered it had damp and serious mould, according to Miss Grady. When the landlord delayed work to fix it, she found another home, but her search took a further six years.
Though increased numbers of holiday homes seems to benefit tourists, who have a wider choice of properties, that is not necessarily the case. The Cumbrian tourist board, for example, said 85 per cent of hospitality businesses struggled to find staff last summer, as labour issues caused by the pandemic and Brexit compounded shortages caused by depopulation as people are priced out of the area.