A TENANT has told how she faced a six-month wait to find a home as figures reveal the extent of Powys' empty homes crisis.

Data from Powys County Council shows that over 3,000 properties in the county are classified as being periodically empty – roughly one in 20.

Properties include in this category are second homes, long term empty properties and businesses classed self-catering, which is represents a smaller minority of the properties counted.

However, there are areas of the county where there are more concentrated areas of holiday homes and empty properties. In Llanwrthwl, in Brecnockshire and Llangynog, in the Tanat Valley in Montgomeryshire, roughly 1 in 6 properties are second homes or long-term empty.

These figures also do not include properties that are being used as an Airbnb, which are not currently registered with local authorities.

The council's housing department has 4,700 prospective tenants on its waiting list and Catherine Griffiths from Machynlleth said the use of properties was making it impossible to find places to live.

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Ms Griffiths, who is retired, had to wait six months to find a property after the owner of her previous house sold the property.

“There was nowhere in Machynlleth available to rent," Ms Griffiths said. "I did speak with the housing department of the council and there was a housing officer, I was on their list but he said at the time that there wasn’t anywhere.

“I was just lucky that there was a friend who has this flat who owns this house, she owns the rest of the house and I have a self-contained flat in the top of it.”

However, when searching for a property Ms Griffiths noticed that there many Airbnb lets in the area and said it is having a an “enormous effect” on the area.

“25 years ago, it was easier there were more properties,” she added.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a huge wealth of rental properties, but nowadays there’s absolutely nowhere to rent. If you got to the high street estate agents, they have such a long list of people waiting.”

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Ms Griffiths previous property has also been brought as a potential second home.

“The person who bought where I was going to live isn’t going to live there the entire time, she said.

“After I moved last November, the place has been empty because she is doing work on it.

“Where I used to live there a row of railway workers cottages, about five have been bought and I think only one was bought by a local person.”

Glantwymyn councillor Elwyn Vaughn has been vocal on the subject and says changes need to be made to protect local communities.

"There’s a long history of challenges in terms of holiday homes and things in rural communities and Wales and campaigns in the last 30 -40 years," he said. "In Powys it is a particular problem in in the Dyfi Valley and parts of the Brecon Beacons.

"There is a housing shortage and very often it also bumps up the prices, we’ve seen it contributing to housing costs increasing in the valley because - it’s obviously very attractive for people to have a second house but it doesn’t do much good for the all-round, all year sustainability of those communities.

“In terms of the tourism sector it would be much more beneficial if those people perhaps had a caravan or participated in using hotels or other facilities.”