If your flat is let by the night, three dated changes reach it over the next six months: a registration deadline, a visitor levy in Cardiff, and a review of the 182-day test that keeps a holiday let on business rates. This page sets out each one with its source, puts the Cardiff long-let averages beside them, and offers a written comparison worked from your own figures.
By 31 March 2027, anyone in Wales taking bookings of 31 nights or fewer must be registered with the Welsh Revenue Authority. Registration is open now and is free. Some of the details go on a public register, and there is a penalty for missing the date.
From 1 April 2027, a visitor levy of £1.30 per person per night applies to stays in Cardiff. Guests pay it; the provider collects it and accounts for it. Stays of more than 31 nights are outside it.
The 182-day test that puts a holiday let on business rates instead of council tax is under review. A consultation on a “modest reduction” closed on 23 October 2026. No decision had been published when this page was checked.
Welsh Government, Registering visitor accommodation: overview; Cardiff Council, Visitor Levy; Welsh Government, Review on holiday let tax rules (31 July 2026). All checked 26 October 2026.Neither is right for every flat. The difference is in your own numbers, and in how much of your time the flat takes.
You keep the nightly rate and the use of the flat between bookings. From April 2027 you also carry:
The figures that decide it are yours: the nights actually let, the rate actually achieved, and what it costs to turn the flat round.
A long let is an occupation contract under Welsh law, furnished or unfurnished as you choose. It brings:
What it brings in is the monthly rent, less the costs of a long let: an agent’s fees if you use one, safety certificates, and any gap between contract-holders.
The Office for National Statistics publishes the average private rent in Cardiff each month. These are the latest figures, by size of home.
| Size | Cardiff average rent a month | Over twelve months |
|---|---|---|
| 1 bedroom | £910 | £10,920 |
| 2 bedrooms | £1,086 | £13,032 |
| 3 bedrooms | £1,212 | £14,544 |
| 4 or more | £1,705 | £20,460 |
Send the figures you already have. A director replies by email with a side-by-side: your short-let year as you describe it, and a long let at the Cardiff average for the size of flat, or at the asking range advertised in your building where we publish one. It names the levy, the registration and the council-tax position for each route.
It is an estimate from your figures and published averages, not a valuation and not a forecast. It includes the route that does not involve us. No sales visit, and nobody will phone you.
The 182-day review has closed but not reported, and the Welsh Government’s 2026 Act provides for a licensing scheme for visitor accommodation that has no start date yet. Check the sources above, or ask us, before you plan around a figure.
Many flat leases in Cardiff restrict short lets, and most mortgages need the lender’s consent to let at all. Either route can need a consent you do not yet have. Read the lease, and ask the lender, before you change what the flat is used for.
We are a licensed letting agent, not the council, the Welsh Revenue Authority or your accountant. This page sets out the published position with a source for each fact. It is not legal, tax or financial advice.
Send the form above with your own figures, or tell us about the flat by email and we will give you our honest reading of both routes, including the one that does not involve us.
No charge, no obligation, and no one will chase you afterwards.