Brighton and Hove is the second most popular town or city for Londoners to own second homes.
Only Chichester is more popular, according to a combination of 2011 Census data and research by the estate agency Hamptons International.
The figures were published in the Sunday Times yesterday (Sunday 2 November).
They newspaper said that 2,348 Londoners own second homes in Brighton and Hove, compared with 2,714 in Chichester.
It also said that the counties of Wiltshire included 3,629 second homes owned by Londoners while the figure for Cornwall and the Scilly Isles was 3,314.
The Sunday Times report, in the newspapers Home supplement, quoted Marc Cox, of estate agents Mishon Mackay, saying: “Prices have gone up 20 per cent in the past year and demand from non-residents means we’re now seeing one-bed flats going for £200,000.
“We recently sold a three-bedroom terraced house next to Hove Station for nearly £500,000. Twenty years ago it would have sold for £35,000.”
By contrast the Brighton and Hove City Council website carries an analysis of the 2011 Census that indicates a slightly different picture.
It said: “In total there are 118,953 household spaces in Brighton and Hove, 114,479 have residents living in them, the remaining are either vacant (3,571 household spaces or 3 per cent of all household spaces) or are second or holiday homes (903 household spaces or 0.8 per cent of all household spaces).
“This is broadly similar proportionately to the south east and England and Wales average.
“In 1991 a higher percentage of household spaces were vacant in Brighton and Hove (7 per cent) and 2 per cent were not primary residences.”
Maybe some of those Londoners are claiming their 2nd homes are empty properties? Or the Sunday Times is wrong? Or the Council. This is a huge question! What is the true figure for 2nd home ownership in Brighton and Hove?
If the Sunday Times is right (and there is also the ownership as somewhere to park money problem), then the political parties better get their brains in gear and put a policy together sharpish – either to hoover extra tax from 2nd homes or to find ways to get them released for primary occupation. Some kind of incentive…
With almost 20,000 people with a Brighton connection on the council waiting list and none of our children or grandchildren being able to afford rents or to buy flats and houses in the city of their birth, isn’t it high time that a law was passed that 2nd homes in overcrowded and housing shortage areas of the country, should not be permitted in future? Add to this the high rents landlords charge due to 42,000+ university students alone, this position is unsustainable. All university housing should be on campii on the outskirts of town within the universities complexes, thus easing congestion on our roads and the need for so many cycle lanes. No one needs two homes when so many have none of their own.
Probably purchased as a Pension Fund.
I *HATE* rich people 🙁