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.

I could easily find pockets of central London where the figure is higher than that!

Digressing as this isn’t just about Cornwall, or comparing property prices - the question is owning a second/holiday home Immoral.

Yes - without a doubt, not just Cornwall although this has been particularly decimated, but lots of other places such as the Lake District and including London.

And landlords who evict tenants for no other reason than to fleece the tourists are just greedy scum.

There are large parts of London where foreign homeowners are almost entirely absent.

Gosh, I really think you need to understand Cornwall more, have you been? It can take half an hour to drive a couple of miles, as has been stated before.

I don't understand either why you are being so dreadfully rude! Obviously you just want an argument with a stranger on the internet for some strange reason.

So your village is mainly long term rentals then , not holiday homes. Make up your mind.

Defending the level of second homes and air BnB s is a bit like defending cuts to the NHS because some people can afford to go private.

Sorry are you suggesting that as a rule it would take half an hour to get from Helston to Portleven or several hours to get from Coverack to Helston (going at 4mph apparently). The times and distance I have given are more than accurate and this is from lots and lots of personal experience! Your assertion that it take 30mins a to travel a couple of miles in cornwall is just mad!

@Eastangular2000 where did I say that! 🤷🏻‍♀️ I said my landlord owns them not how they are used!
You clearly have never been to Devon or cornwall nor do you have any appreciation for the true situation in rural communities blighted by out of control non residential house usage.

I am not going to respond to you further.

The lack of housing is multi factorial, I don't think second homes make up a huge amount of the market do they? Certainly no second homes in this area, but demand outstrips supply because the population has nearly doubled in twenty years, and no properties have been built in that time.

You couldn’t be more wrong! But I can only go in what information you have put out there. If you post vague assertions people will draw conclusions.

@Eastangular2000 it's not unusual round here to travel at precisely 0mph over the course of half an hour.

@LaFemmeNicola wow, just wow!! So the people who were born and bred in a certain area need to be be "deserving" of a home there? What a fucking awful thing to say!

I live in one of these beautiful areas, I was born and bred here, everything I've ever known is here. Same for my husband. We don't own our own home and we can't afford to NOT BECAUSE WE DON'T WORK BLOODY HARD, BUT BECAUSE RICH PEOPLE FROM ELSEWHERE BUY ALL THE HOUSES AND HAVE PUSHED THE PRICES UP!

I work in the NHS, I work bloody hard and I do my bit for society. Because we're not rich, are you saying I don't deserve to have a home here, to raise my children in the place that's all they've ever known?

Are you literally suggesting that people should be turfed out OF THEIR HOME to make way for people who, for whatever reason, have got more money? So that the rich people can enjoy the local area because they are somehow more deserving just because they're fucking rich? While the rest of us poor peasants go and live in some ghetto somewhere?

FFS we are not talking about standstill traffic. That is the same anywhere in the country! Though in my experience what qualifies as heavy traffic in and out of cities is quite different.

Or like people all over the country you can move to somewhere where you can afford property! It is really weird that some people think being born somewhere gives them a god given right to stay there for their whole lives. If we all thought like that no one would ever be allowed to move anywhere!

I work bloody hard but I can’t afford to buy a house like the one I grew up in, I don’t think that is my entitlement though.

@Eastangular2000 my local town is 2.5m away, at any time out of rush hour out of season it is 8 minutes. Any daylight hours in season it is over 20 minutes.

That seems entirely reasonable and in line with lots of places, you will recognise that it is also not what I was disagreeing with which was the assertion that in cornwall as a rule it takes 30 minutes to travel 2 miles.

Yes.

Yes, I think they are.

For a while I was looking into small seaside cottages in Cornwall to use as a family holiday home for now with a view to moving permanently, but ultimately decided I could do it morally.

It stops lower paid local people from being able to afford homes where they grew up, or perhaps at all, and destroys communities.

I had to move far from home to find a decent job, when I was young. My Mum understood as she had to do the same years before. It was the case for the majority in little rural places.

@Eastangular2000 @LaFemmeNicola what you don't seem to realise is that local communities are being destroyed, knowingly and willingly, principally by people who will gain financially but sacrifice nothing or little for that. It is incredibly selfish, and you are defending it?

Why should a tourist have more rights, and a non residential property owner be taxed less, than a someone that actually adds to their community?

I think it's because in many suburbia and urban locations community counts for shit. Don't bring that attitude down here (except you do).

Tourists don’t have more rights, in cornwall second home owners pay full council tax so not sure what you mean by taxes less. They will also have paid additional stamp duty. Your assertion that urban or suburban areas have no sense of community is simply ludicrous and is indicative of the sense of exceptionalism that seems to be prevalent amongst some people who feel they have an entitlement to live in the same place their whole life simply by dint of being born there.

And isn't that a bit crap? Shouldn't we be making our world, our environment and society better and more sustainable not less? Shouldn't we be creating high value jobs, and communities across the country? The current level of non residential, seasonal occupancy isn't even economically sustainable.

Surely we want to make things better not worse?

Not everyone thinks that never leaving the village you grew up in is a positive. Lots of people consider it stifling

@Eastangular2000 very few second home owners pay full council tax, many "advertise" their property the minimum amount on obscure platforms to avoid council tax and qualify as a business.

I've lived in urban, suburban, and rural places. If you haven't, you really won't understand what community means.