Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how his Department measures whether new build developments are used as a primary or second home; and how his Department assesses the number of homes used mainly for (a) holiday and (b) airbnbs lets.

Data on whether new build developments are used as a primary or second home are not centrally collected

The English Housing Survey (EHS) gathers data on the number and proportion of households who have a second home. However, we do not collect data on whether the second home was a new-build or otherwise. We have recently published 2018-19 data in our second homes fact sheet, accessible here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-housing-survey-2018-to-2019-second-homes-fact-sheet . It shows that in 2018-19, 772,000 households in England reported having a second home. 39% of these said they used their second home as a holiday home or weekend cottage.