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

Second homes are decimating my community. Nearly every other house is one in the 'pretty' villages. With almost half the houses being unoccupied most of the time, you can imagine the place is a bit ghosty in the off season. We used to have a thriving community, but now our young people are forced to leave the area, and our local health services cannot recruit (well they successfully recruit but the new recruits cannot find anywhere to live).
So yes, if you moved into my area I would see you as yet another person who cares more about their personal enjoyment than the wellbeing of the community they've come into. I'd be polite to you of course, because that's what you do, but I would secretly dislike what you have done, yes. And I wouldn't hesitate to say 'oh not another one' behind your back and so would other local people. You'd never know though.

If you must buy one, my advice is to buy in an area where they make up less than 5% of the housing stock. People are far less likely to feel negative towards you if it's not putting huge pressure on local services and people's lives. Of course, this may be you don't get a pretty view.

We don’t, but my in-laws neighbour’s house is a second home. The neighbours really like her. They’re all quite close on the estate, and if the couple who own it are there in stuff, they always invite / include them.

They don’t care that it’s their second home. I think the irritation now comes from the fact that now the children have gotten older, they visit with their families. Sometimes in the summer / Christmas etc there can be 8 cars at the house, which is a nightmare for residents. I think as long as you’re consecrate, no one will care.

Of course some people will oppose you buying a second home in their area, when there's a nationwide shortage of housing. If you choose to buy a second home, you need to feel OK with that

Seriously dont do this at the moment, dont buy a second home. By april next year you will be paying double or even triple council tax on it and this is very likely to go up even more. However much use you think its going to get trust me, it wont. you will get bored with going to the same place in time or your circumstances will change. You will pay extra stamp duty when you buy and even more tax when you sell so put it into a company dont buy it as individuals.Be really really aware of all the massive changes to this industry that there are at the moment. I guarantee you, within 3 years you will want to "airbnb" it and that brings a whole new world of pain with the fire safety guidance etc. the best way to demonstrate why this is a bad idea is to take the purchase price, divide it by 10K and thats how many holidays you could be having in other places. if its in cornwall then huge numbers are selling up at the moment becuase of the changes to both the tax laws and the fire safety guidance. Plus locals really, really dont want you, they really dont.

My neighbour here in London is a second home owner - the flat is her occasional pied a terre when she comes in to London for meetings or socialising.

She is lovely and it is nice to have a quiet neighbour.

I live in 2nd home city Arizona. No locals ever say anything to second home owners. Some say things behind people's backs though.

There are people here who have houses they literally visit for a week once a year, which I think is a waste.

My in laws live in a place where there’s lots of second/holiday homes. The ‘dislike’ seems to surround the houses that people appear in for a handful of days a year- when plenty of people would love that house and they see it as a waste. There are also quite a lot of houses which are extremely unkempt due to the owners simply not being there enough for upkeep- and choosing to relax when they do visit.locals don’t like the eye sore! If you are buying with siblings I imagine it would be frequently used? And as long as you keep it nicely you should be fine!

One neighbour is also a second home owner and on the other side the house is dilapidated and for small at a pretty low price. But it's hardly a tourist hot spot and property prices are generally low (over an hour from nearest city) plus judging by the massive new builds going up I suspect people prefer a large modern well insulated house over a small cold old one.
Locals are very nice, other than friends who would know if I'm a tourist in a rental or a second home owner or a standard incomer?

@Poiul you just can’t know or predict.

My only query on a family holiday home with lots of adult owners, is that the logistics / politics can be quite complex.

My family have a holiday home and we are treated very scathingly by the ‘locals’…

… what is quite curious about the scenario, is that they are also their holiday homes. They are just more ‘local’ than us ie from the nearest city of thereabouts.

We are from London and that is unacceptable.

We have limited interaction, but when we have tried there have been many catty comments - some renovations were done recently and that seems to have rubbed some people up the wrong way.

I don't, but my neighbour does. She lives In London but also has a home next door to me, used during the holidays and annual leave with the intent to retire here eventually. From a neighbours perspective I don't feel like anyone here has bad feelings toward her. We all thinks she's lovely, keep an eye on her house when she isn't here, put her bins out, take parcels in for her etc......she's treated no differently to any other neighbour by everyone on our street 🙂