Gwynedd holiday homes row erupts after £250k chapel sale

Capel Bethania, near Pwllheli, in Gwynedd, had a reserve of £120,000 - but the winning bid was £257,000

A row over holiday homes has erupted after a former chapel at a beauty spot in north Wales fetched more than double its guide price at auction.

Capel Bethania, in Pistyll, Gwynedd, had a reserve of £120,000 - but the winning bid was £257,000.

There was backlash after Auction House UK highlighted on social media its potential as a holiday home.

The number of holiday homes in the area has been blamed for making housing unaffordable for local people.

Critics argued the chapel, which was built in 1875 and overlooks the sea, could be turned into an affordable home for a local family.

Replies to the auctioneers' tweet include references to the fire-bombing campaign against holiday homes in Wales during the 1980s and 90s.

Over a 12-year period from 1979, 228 properties were damaged across Wales

Over a 12-year period from 1979, 228 properties were damaged across Wales, with a police investigation seeing just one person convicted.

Dubbed the Meibion Glyndwr campaign, it was thought to have been a protest against rural homes in Welsh language heartlands being sold as holiday homes to people from England.

The auctioneers said full planning consent had been granted for a "unique four-bedroom holiday unit with generous amenity space to the side and rear, along with off-road parking."

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Liz Saville Roberts, the local Plaid Cymru MP, said: "This is yet another example of a part of Wales's history being touted to the highest bidder to turn the chapel associated with pacifist Tom Nefyn into yet another holiday accommodation unit.

"This building is located on the main road without adequate parking, and, once again, shows how community housing interests count as nothing on the open market."

The chapel overlooks the sea at a beauty spot in Gwynedd, as shown in the auctioneers' photograph

Calls had been made to postpone the sale to allow a community group enough time to raise money to buy the property.

The identity of the purchaser has not been made public.