Pandemic mobility, second homes and housing market change in a rural amenity area during COVID-19 – The Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales

• Published in: Progress in planning Vol. 172; p. 100731
• Main Authors: Gallent, Nick, Stirling, Phoebe, Hamiduddin, Iqbal
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2023
• Subjects: Change of use; Covid-19; Holiday lets; Phosphate pollution; Planning control; Rural areas; Second homes; Wales; Covid-19; Phosphate pollution; Change of use; Rural areas; Second homes; Wales; Planning control; Holiday lets
• ISSN: 0305-9006; 1873-4510
• DOI: 10.1016/j.progress.2022.100731

The Covid-19 pandemic has been presented as a critical change driver for rural amenity areas, precipitating urban flight and a decentralisation of housing choice and investment. House prices in both near-urban and more distant rural markets saw considerable growth in 2020 and 2021, linked to a mix of second home investment, expanded demand for holiday letting, migration to exploit flexible-working opportunities, and homebuying for early retirement. These demand-side pressures, apparently accentuated by the pandemic, combine with supply-side constraints on development in rural areas (which can accommodate a limited amount of additional housing) to produce significant housing stress. However, processes affecting some areas, in different parts of the world, have arguably been generalised to all areas, and localised processes remain under-investigated. This monograph explores the experience of the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, UK – an amenity area with good connectivity to a number of major urban centres and therefore sources of extra-local housing demand. Focusing on second home buying, as a leading element of extra-local pressure in amenity areas, the monograph considers the particular circumstances of this area. It shows that a combination of amplified demand-side factors, linked to the pandemic, and heightened supply-side constraints, due to a phosphate crisis affecting the National Park’s major river catchments, requires a programme of actions that extends beyond the housing domain in order to resolve escalating housing market challenges and associated community and economic risks. •A case study of counter-urbanization and housing market change in a rural amenity area during the Covid-19 pandemic.•Examines how pre-existing movements and housing market processes were accentuated and complicated by new mobilities.•Explores rural development constraints and the diversity of investment pressures that have been amplified by the pandemic.•Looks, in particular, at second home buying and the use of homes as holiday lets.•Provides a case study of the complexities of rural situations impacted by new mobilities and new sources of housing demand.