Letting agents in Scotland will be on alert after a council has offered to buy second homes from their owners.

In a move designed to keep ownership local and prevent people from creating holiday homes, Highland Council has stepped into the housing market.

As part of a pilot scheme, the local authority, which covers Inverness and the northern tip of the UK, has put a cap of £180k on purchases, although it is prepared to go higher in some cases.

The offers are attractive because there is no need for a home report, and sellers avoid estate agent fees.

The council has received enquiries from 130 sellers, and actually bought 50 properties so far, mostly in Inverness and Easter Ross.

Hearts and homes

Allan Maguire, head of development and regeneration at Highland Council, (pictured) says: “People will sometimes say to us that their parents lived in the area all their lives and that they don’t want to sell it on the open market and then be used for an Airbnb.

“Rather than you selling the property and it then be used as a holiday home, we will pay market value for it but we will also not require a home report or for you to pay estate agents fees.”

Maguire says the council has adopted a “hearts and minds approach”, and sellers would still get the market value even though they may be able to get a better price selling their homes on the open market.

Cost of living crisis

Daryl McIntosh, policy manager at Propertymark says: “With many feeling the brunt of the cost of living crisis, it is vital that the necessary supply of housing exists to ensure that needs are met.

“Removing homes from the open market may be beneficial to some on the housing waiting list, but it makes it harder still for those who are not eligible for local authority-owned homes to become homeowners, giving them even fewer options in an already starved market.

“There are other, potentially more effective, mechanisms being introduced to tackle some of the perceived problems of second homeownership such as licensing for short-term holiday lets and changes to planning policy,” he added.

“But boosting the overall supply of housing remains the crucial issue, and Scottish Government must work together with local authorities to do all they can to enable house-building across all tenures.”