Business Rates on Second Homes

[Jonathan2783]

Hi - I'm not sure if anyone can offer advice. I would like to buy a second home by the coast. We nearly did but then found out about the double council tax coming in, in April 2025. Completely understand the rationale, but seems overly punitive. It's a bit of a dream, so we would be prepared to meet the threshold for Business Rates by making the property available for 140 days on Airbnb, and hope it lets for the required 70 days per year. I think the rateable value would be below £15,000 and this qualify for small business relief, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm wondering if anyone has an experience of what the business rates add up to vs council tax? Any help gratefully received and if any of this is off, I'm no expert.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jonathan2783 There was talk of harmonising the 70 day business rates requirement with the 105 day Furnished Holiday Let requirement. This may be off the table now many of the FHL tax benefits have been removed as of April 2025.

The Business rateable value for holiday lets is an amount per single bed equivalent number. So a 3 bed place with 3 double beds would be £6 times the rate. The rate varies by area (Derbyshire its about £600 (down from £1000 a few years ago). You can search for business rated properties near where you might buy and see what rate/bed they are valued at. You really need to be below £12000 as this gives full relief which then tapers off to zero at 15K. Be aware though that you will have today for your own rubbish collection.