Readers of this blog will be familiar with the "Disappearing Homes Conundrum", whereby it is argued, by landlords' associations mainly, that introducing rent controls or increasing the regulation of the letting of homes will result in a reduction of homes available. Of course this is true in a limited sense, in that it will reduce the number of homes available for rent, possibly quite drastically as seen after WWII when the Rent Acts were passed, but it won't reduce the total number of homes available, in that for every landlord that sells up, there will be another home that is owned by its occupier.
However, this is only true for certain parts of the country. In the other, more scenic, parts, the homes really do disappear as landlords either convert their rentals to holiday lets, or sell to someone who will either do the same thing or will buy them as a second home. In Wales, with the complete lack of joined-up thinking that we have come to associate with government, they are simultaneously increasing the regulation of and bureaucratic burden on landlords and bewailing the effect of the number of holiday lets and second homes is having in restricting the supply and affordability of housing for local people.
No doubt they will try to solve this problem with yet more regulation and legislation: to the man who has only a hammer, every fixing looks like a nail.
Debate Magazine
