AN ABANDONED apartment block which some had feared was being used to house migrants has been converted into holiday lets. 

Earlier this year, thousands of people took to social media claiming West Mansions in Poole Road, Westbourne, was being used for asylum seekers. 

Despite being seen by more than 70,000 people on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Home Office confirmed it had no plans to use the five-storey building. 

Workmen were seen outside the building giving it a spruce-up, including a new lick of paint, which is believed to have started the incorrect speculation. 

However newly converted apartments on the fourth floor of the building has appeared on Booking.com as being available to rent from £300 per night with a minimum booking stay of seven nights. 

Bournemouth Echo: West Mansions in Poole Road

Sleeping eight, the apartment features three bedrooms, a fully equipped kitchen with a dishwasher and an oven, a washing machine and a bathroom with a hair dryer. 

The most recent census figures (2021) from the Office for National Statistics show there were approximately 1,970 holiday homes in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. 

Dan Wilson Craw, deputy director at Generation Rent, said: "Airbnb has made owning a holiday home more lucrative and we saw a huge increase over the pandemic when international travel was suspended for much of 2021. 

Read more: 'No plans' for disused flats to be used for asylum seekers despite speculation

"There is fierce competition for the limited number of homes coming on the market and it is pricing out people who grew up in these communities and want to work in the tourist industries Airbnb is meant to be supporting." 

Mr Wilson Craw called on local authorities to license holiday let operators and introduce higher council tax on second homes.  

He also urged the Government to remove "tax perks which make holiday lets even more profitable than normal tenancies".