Debate contribution: Holiday Homes and Short-term Lets

Debate contribution by Ms Sian Mulholland on 4 November 2025.

MLA

Ms Sian Mulholland

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

4 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Holiday Homes and Short-term Lets

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5217130

Read the official Assembly record

Text

As an MLA for North Antrim, I have the privilege of representing communities that take in much of our north coast. I was delighted to hear Ms Hunter referencing Ballycastle. It is just a wee nod that the north coast does not stop on the road out of Portballintrae; it goes right the way around. What unites those places is not just their beauty; it is their popularity. From Bushmills to Ballycastle and Cushendun to Portballintrae, the balance between tourism and community is vulnerable to tipping too far. The motion goes right to the core of what I see as mattering most to me in my job. It is about maintaining those thriving, sustainable communities where our local shops, local schools and services flourish by being able to depend on people to live and work locally all year round. It is a common issue right across the coast, and there is now an urgency about it. I thank the proposer of the motion for bringing it once again to the House. What once was a housing crisis is now a real threat to the very sustenance of our rural and coastal communities. I see that every day for myself as I drive around and when I am driving home. I see the darkened rows of houses that sit empty through the week and especially through the winter. Our high streets quieten as soon as the tourists leave, and the schools struggle to keep their doors open. Barnish Primary School in Carey closed because families have had to move away. I hear about the situation so often in my surgeries, particularly in what I call the north of North Antrim, which is situated in the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area. People there have told me that they cannot find homes that they can afford. What once was a real concern about housing affordability has turned into a community crisis. The proliferation of second homes and short-term rentals is absolutely reshaping our coast and our rural way of life. The Department for Communities says that 13% of the homes in the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area have no usual residents. That is more than double the Northern Ireland average of around 6%, and, in some coastal settlements, it is far higher. The council has told us that in Portballintrae, which straddles the two constituencies, between 45% and 51% of properties are second homes. When you go canvassing and walk past those homes, you will knock six doors before you come across someone who lives in the house full-time. Those are extraordinary figures for any community that is trying to sustain schools, services and civic life. On top of that, there is a striking disparity because Causeway Coast and Glens has both the lowest average wage and the highest average house price in Northern Ireland. That tells its own story. Local people are being priced out while homes sit dark for most of the year, once the summer sun sets. I have spoken to constituents who have had to move to Ballymena, Ballymoney or Coleraine just to find somewhere that is affordable to buy. The knock-on effects of that are so significant, particularly with childcare pressures, longer commutes and families who are growing up without the close network of grandparents and family members nearby. As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child, but so many people on the north coast are losing that village life. For those who are unable to buy, the picture is no better. Between 2018 and 2023, private rents in Causeway Coast and Glens increased faster than in any other council area in Northern Ireland. When landlords can earn several times more from a short-term let, the incentive to remove properties from the long-term rental market is clear, and it is devastating. Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council has also said that 40% of all certified self-catering accommodation units in Northern Ireland are registered in the Causeway Coast and Glens area. As has been mentioned before, those are just the ones that are properly registered. Anecdotally, many of us know about countless others that are operating informally throughout the wider north coast area and are not properly registered. We need better data and transparency and a public register of short-term lets and second homes, as is the case in Scotland and Wales. We need to empower our councils, and we need to be able to designate short-term let control areas or to introduce new planning use for short-term lets and second homes. We need rates reform, like Wales and Scotland. We should explore a fair premium on non-primary residences, with revenue being reinvested in affordable housing or for waste infrastructure in order to allow new homes to be built. That has to be an Executive-wide plan. Housing should not be a privilege that is dictated by economic disparity; rather, it should be a basic right and the foundation of every thriving, sustainable community.

832 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:46 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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