If you own a second home how do you get treated by locals?

We're part of the at least 66% of the Cornish economy not based on tourists.
Most of our friends don't work in tourism - university lecturer, GCHQ, diplomatic service, designers, loads of small business owners eg niche IT, etc most of our teenagers do, including Rick Steins but then if in catering move elsewhere. Who wants to slave away in catering and get shipped in and out from a dormitory in Delabole. That's why they can't recruit in Cornwall, there's no local digs.

A tree has come down and punched a hole in the under occupied second home down the road, within the local school catchment. We're not going to tell them.
They aren't here to help clear up after the floods.
They aren't here to be part of the community.
I'm sure their ring doorbell will sort it out.

Absolutely. Generations of Londoners here, in a non wealthy area now priced out. One "trend" I'm seeing is buying a house in Norfolk or Kent to supplement their income so people can pay the rent on their multi generational household and have somewhere to escape to when they can. Huge amounts of W London are empty boarded up or falling in due to second home owners from abroad. Londoners are not evil housing is ridiculous everywhere

@ladygindiva 👋 -apparently we should be giving thanks to all the second home owners like @Tizerorfizz as we wouldn't have a functioning society without them.

BTW @Tizerorfizz - very few people in Cornwall don't want tourists to visit. Second home owners are v different to tourists as well you and your faux naivety know.

All this tourism can be done without actually owning an entire house in the location.... Have you ever heard of a hotel? Or a caravan park? And please don't lecture me on a place I've lived for over 40 years. Your arrogance is astonishing but also unsurprising.

Family have a second home in County Kerry. It’s rural Ireland though so the locals would give you the coat off their back if you needed it!

@ladygindiva You should wake up and look at the economy stats for Cornwall. Holidays and the economy driven by second homes and their guests is huge. You would all feel the economic winds of change if it disappeared. People go to restaurants, farm shops, attractions, galleries, the Eden Centre etc. It keeps people in employment and they are largely decent jobs. A very famous chef near me struggles to recruit now yet his alumni have been stellar. Not good enough for the locals apparently.

We also use local tradespeople. All our interiors were sourced locally. All our maintenance is sourced locally. You would think 500,000 people in Cornwall could have a bouyant economy. Everyone in business has been helpful. It’s going to be very unfortunate for Cornwall with no EU money and fewer tourists. How anyone thinks these areas will thrive is beyond me unless people are business savvy and want to work at what is available.

One of our very very good friends has a second home in Wales. They use it quite a lot especially since retiring and they very kindly let us use it one week a year over summer for half term with our kids.
The neighbours are absolutely lovely; always have a heads up we’re coming and honestly couldn’t do more for us, even bringing the bins back in for us. They’ll stop us for a chat out on walks, once they even saved some leaflets for kids activities on for us so we knew about them when we arrived.
And we’re just add ons 🤣 our friends really rave about them and say it’s a really nice community. They are there an awful lot though; I’d say if they didn’t have grown up kids of their own back home they'd pack up and move there entirely.

Agreed but they won't get it. I'm also near Newquay by the way x

You don't support the local economy by owning a second home, but you tell yourself that if it helps your conscience

This is true of where I live in Cornwall.

We have one in N Norfolk, most of the town are also holiday lets. Locals were frosty at first, but we don’t actually let ours out, probably should but can’t be bothered, and we do stay a lot, so either side of us have come round. The local pub is a joy, it’s mostly tourists so they are delighted when anyone else comes in.

And the point re the size of the house is correct. No locals could afford a house that size as a starter or second home. So holiday type place expected.

Community and second home don't really go together in my head.

Community and holiday home? Yes.

As a member of a rural community, who lives on a tenant farm and owns a house which is a holiday let in my community which we sometimes stay in (even though it's four miles away but hey a change of scenery) no issue.

As an owner who lives in London, has a property here, employs local people, gardeners, cleaners, advertising etc, absolutely no problem. Owners and guests become part of the community.

If you mean a house to stand empty except for holiday use then yes I would probably momentarily think that's a shame, then move on with my life.

Would I judge, would the community judge face to face? Unlikely because we would assume you were tourists and be welcoming. You wouldn't necessarily become part of the community but only because nobody would know who you were

Hey guess what? We're being priced out of where we grew up in "that London" too. It's not just in Cornwall you know 🙄

My aunts lovely village in the western highlands is now a ghost village thanks to second home owners. The church, school and wee shop have now closed due to the dwindling numbers of actual residents. The locals have been priced out and driven away. It's horrible to see especially now the older folk have no amenities and no local transport as the school bus and post bus used to act as public transport. Nearest town is 15 miles away on a single track road:. It was such a lovely, friendly community before and all the kids our age back in the 70s and 80's would never have thought of moving away. When they grew up they had no option as not many high paid jobs to compete with London (majority of second home owners are from London) or Edinburgh high earners.
So yeah, somewhere like that they'd resent you being there.

That's interesting you say that; would it really be cheaper? If you are a large group you'll need a large property to accommodate you all, which means high council tax and energy bills and maintenance charges as well as the cost of the mortgage deposit and ongoing payments, legal fees and the eye-watering stamp duty for a second home (£13,100 on a house costing £320K.) Then capital gains tax when you come to sell it.
Would not renting a holiday place a couple of times a year be cheaper over say 10 years? It might be worth calculating the figures.

Our second home is probably in use by me and my adult DC for around 70% of the time.
In the Lake District National Park, local occupancy clauses are placed on some properties. The underlying reason for most is to prevent certain types of properties being used as a second or holiday home.This leads to only being able to purchase homes that would not be suitable family or starter homes. I cannot understand why Cornwall doesn't have a similar policy.
I have never had any antipathy from locals, quite the opposite. We support events locally as well as spend money in businesses.
I have owned it for 9 years and the statement I guarantee you, within 3 years you will want to "airbnb" it is completely wrong.
I fully support paying over the odds via taxation, I know what a privilege a second home is.

Interesting set of responses.

Dislike in my opinion should be about the governments that have done nothing to stop the growth of second homes and even more so short term lets (Air BnB is one just the most well known).

This is the situation in so many villages in my area. I'm so pleased my local authority has taken action and increased council tax on second homes.

There are only about 10 houses where I live, 2 of them are second homes with the owners in London. One of them we’re friends with, one is… just v different! Like you get on with some people and not others anyway, it makes no difference that they’re second homes.

The problem we have with both of them is that they don’t look after their properties (up to them about the insides, of course) but it’s the gardens that get overgrown, block light and paths and drains.

I think if you are a considerate neighbour that gets on with people then it makes little difference.

There are a few people who are vocal about second home owners where I live, but they are also the people either own a second property and let it to holiday makers or have sold an inherited property at an inflated price because of the holiday market.

To me, the problem is not second homes themselves. It’s the total failure of our economy to create a diverse range of jobs in beautiful areas that attract tourists. Most of the farming and fishing jobs that were once the backbone of local employment have gone, leaving comparatively menial low-skilled low-waged jobs like supermarket and cleaning jobs. People with those sorts of jobs can rarely get on the housing ladder. These jobs don’t give people status or the sense of pride in what they do that the old jobs did. There is little to no career trajectory in these jobs, so people are stuck on minimum wage and may only have a seasonal income because their work is in the tourism industry. We desperately need a more joined-up approach in which the school system better supports kids who aren’t going on to university in gaining the skills they need to have good, well paid careers.

Tried to type *about 4 or 5

I live in a very touristy place and have it hunk about 4 or 5 second home owners on my road. Most are lovely, the neighbours and us are all friendly to them and have a little chat in the street if they want, same as any other neighbours. There is however one, that unfortunately acts like he's above all, says horrible demeaning things to people. Taunted me for not owning my home, other neighbours have nothing nice to say about him. And yes he is a Londoner (although I'm very well aware that's not all,.but he's absolutely doing himself the stereotype)
Real shame because we did try to make him feel welcome 🤔

Oh well. We've dealt with worse than a few locals who might have a problem with our life choices.

@NeartoNewquay Why? You demonstrate why we don’t want to interact. Great shame really. We are quite nice people.

As the Cornish economy is 33% based on tourism, it seems like Brexit style folly to hate people and drive them away when the economy depends on them. I’m always interested to see so few ethnic minorities in Cornwall. I guess change and accepting others is an issue. Most people I know who have moved there yearn for the past and what the uk used to be. Most people helping us run our house have been pleasant but they run businesses based on the tourist industry. Luckily they need us and we like them.