Are second homes and short-term rental properties immoral?

[maranella]

We have a huge shortage of housing in this country and there and more and more stories about seaside towns and pretty villages being hollowed out by homes that stand empty half the year.

So I'm just wondering how other people feel about second homes and ones bought specifically to be holiday rentals? I really feel for people in places like Cornwall, Devon, north Norfolk, parts of Wales and the Lake District, who can't find affordable homes in the towns and villages where they've always lived and worked.

Like you I have lived in both rural and urban places so I am disagreeing with you from an equally well informed POV! It seems that you are friends with a number of people who are possible committing tax evasion or choosing to exploit loopholes. No wonder you have a skewed perspective

FFS it's about opportunity for as wider range of people as possible, not prioritising one group over another purely financial gain and merriment of a privileged few.

Eastangular I must say I have learned so much and had a far broader life experience than I would have done if I had stayed around the corner from my Mum! That said, I have missed her and it would have been great to have her and my Dad’s support close by when I had small children.

Just as immoral as every other crisis going on caused by people. In my opinion people pick and choose what's immoral when they aren't part of that particular problem yet will drive a Gas guzzler. fly regularly, eat meat but don't care about climate or environment crisis' and don't think they are immoral in that aspect.

Horses for courses.
A lot of things are immoral and unfair but such is life.

I own two properties, the house I live in and a flat nearby i recently purchased and rent to my DC for one third the market rent. My DC was having suicidal thoughts in the shared house they were living in. I feel moral not immoral.

I do get the impression that there are some parts of the country where the people who live there think that only they should be allowed to enjoy the area. Hotels are wicked, holiday lets are wicked, Air b'n'b is wicked, caravan sites are wicked.

But I bet they don't mind staying in some of the places that their visitors come from when they fancy visiting a city or having a change of scene.

Total strawman. No one cares about hotels or caravan parks. The issue is that in some places there are no rentals for people to actually live in. None. That also destroys local schools end up with too few pupils and close, and any practical shops close just leaving gift shops and tea rooms.
There should be a maximum percentage of houses and flats allowed to be rented out as holiday accommodation. This keeps places alive and stops them becoming disney villages.
Like Seahorses. There is not a single resident as far as I know who lives there. It is literally a holiday village.

@amicissimma this isn't a couple of tourists spreading their wealth like some modern alms. We really don't have much of an issue with them. It's wholesale destruction of communities, can you understand that?

Where I live much of the local economy is based on tourism and I don't have a problem with that. Hotels, bed and breakfasts, campsites and caravan parks, small theme parks and other attractions/activities, all absolutely fine. But the staff who work in these places on minimum wage can't find anywhere to live so restaurants are having to limit their opening hours or places can't get cleaners etc.

Much of the local economy is also based around other "normal" stuff - healthcare, schools etc and we can't get enough staff for these either because of greedy bastards buying all the houses for holiday lets. Literally cannot recruit doctors and nurses because nowhere for them to live.

It's a crisis of epic proportions and is destroying peoples lives, literally.

I just don't understand what people think will happen once even more people are forced out. It all very well saying move but what happens then?
When nurses and NHS workers can no longer afford to live here and move away. Who runs the hospitals and GP practices? Tourists need them too.
Who sits lifeguarding the tourists swimming?
Who empties the bins?
Who grits they roads?
Who manages the car parks for the tourists?
Who runs the shops?

The more people are forced out the more the tourists will be affected too. It's happening already. The bin collections are days behind due to lack of staff. Green bin collections have been suspended till the spring.

Nobody is saying we don't want or need tourism. But it needs to be controlled. We should never be in a situation where communities are destroyed. Shops, pubs and other businesses close because of either lack of staff or lack of patrons.
People should not be being made homeless purely so other people can go on holiday.

What happens is businesses can not get the staff they need and complain that no one wants to work for a living.

Yep....

I said 20 miles not 40.
Its losing not loosing.
Don’t you think cities like London and other expensive places have the same issues re bin men, carers, teaching assistants etc? We do - we accept we can’t live in nice areas if we are low paid & lack family money. That is the harsh reality of life, no one is going to keep prices low for us.

London does not have the same issue at all. There is no borough of London with no residents living there.

It has the same issue of our youngsters not being able to afford to live there though doesn’t it? But you don’t hear too many Londoners moaning about being born and bred there yet having to move out to the suburbs or further. Why? Because it’s completely normal & accepted there.

On the contrary - I don’t mind who LIVES where I live, just live in the house and don’t leave it empty half the year or more with a constant stream of entitled holidaymakers the rest of the year - stop killing communities.

I have left the village I grew up in, went to uni, have a good career taking me all over the U.K., and have travelled extensively - but I have come back here to live - it absolutely breaks my heart going to see my parents who still live in the village - in winter surrounded by empty homes - the village almost in darkness. Nobody to call upon in an emergency, or even to pass the time of day with.

my house is between two holiday lets - both of my original neighbours were given eviction notice so that the owners of the houses could let them out. I own my house so luckily escaped that.

I no longer have neighbours, instead I have either nobody around me or a constant stream of noisy holidaymakers who don’t give a damn about being courteous, keeping noise down etc because they are only there for a week and have paid a fortune. I started off being nice to them, but it got very wearisome with new faces every week and with their rudeness. Now, if they ask me things about the area I tell them to ask the letting agency, I’m not a tour guide. I no longer care what they think of me, after all they are only here for a week, and I think it is great when I look up trip advisor and see they have left negative reviews because I have been rude to them - hopefully it will put people off staying and the owners will go back to renting long term to people who will actually live there - wherever they hail from.

Given that most London boroughs have the equivalent of about half the TOTAL population of cornwall it’s not really that surprising is it! A more realistic comparison would be to compare a couple of streets in London with a small fishing village. Or are you trying to suggest that Cornwall as a whole has no residents living there.

Lovely. And I hope you encounter the same attitude from local people during your own extensive travels

Are there boroughs of Cornwall for example that don’t have any residents living there?

I wouldn’t consider it immoral if the wealth required to do so were taxed properly.

When I travel I stay in serviced accommodation, not a family home.

If you go on holiday and stay in a family home, expect there to be families who live there - going about their lives around you - getting up early for work, entertaining friends in the garden - and who are not obliged to provide you with local information.

My uncle (from a generations-old Cornish family and who lived there all his life) was letting a little place on his own land to long term tenants until a few years ago, he switched to holiday lets (or ‘emmets’ as he referred to them) because the long term tenants treated the place so badly.

Not boroughs - villages. Yes there are many where there are none or only maybe one or two people who actually live there - hence the decline in local services all year round, and some towns which are all holiday lets in some areas - particularly around seafronts.

Why is it a moral question for the individual? Why not some bigger analysis of why there is a housing shortage? The rampant free market did this.

I can’t believe you look them up on trip advisor 😂😂😂😂. That is priceless. Seriously get a life.