How hated will we be?

[SecondH]

DH and I are looking at buying a second home by the coast. I would love to hear from other second home owners and people who live in areas where there are lots of second home owners. How hated by the locals would we be? Do neighbours ignore you etc?

You wont be hated at all, nobody will care.

No one cares.

I live in an area with lots of second homes. Yes we hate them. They are destroying the area .

You'll be hated if the house stands empty 90% of the time, and you arrive for the occasional week laden with boxes of food you brought from home. But if you are there most weekends, shop locally, get involved with the local community, give work to locals to clean the house, tend the garden etc, you might fit in okay.

Thanks for the honesty. Do you hate them to the point of being rude if one lived next door? Or would it be a quiet resentment.

If it's rented out when you're not there it means we sometimes have shitty neighbours

How do you feel about people who rent them out as a holiday let when not in use? Would that make them less hated than just leaving it empty for large periods of time.

Ah that's interesting. So you'd rather it stand empty for periods of time rather than have tourists in and out?

That's even worse as it means people being loud and cutting loose next door all the time as people want to enjoy themselves on holiday.

Will it be empty or will you be putting it on air b&b until you use it? We live by the sea in a popular seaside town and we are 5 mins away from the beach. Around 35% of our street are air b&b's now and everyone else hates it as everyone turns up in 3 cars plus and there is only on street parking and they are usually loud and obnoxious. Noone is rude to the owners but noone likes all these air b&bs popping up. Luckily I dont have one next door but the ones that do definitely moan.

Yeah, I appreciate that. I'd rather live next to an empty house than a holiday let myself. But it seems locals often have an issue with a lack of contribution to the local economy, if it stands empty.

They’re both shit in different ways.

Will you actually reconsider though?

This
and it’s worse if it’s a holiday home.

There are designated holiday only homes in Devon where I live - buy one of those?

We are the same, it’s defo a very ‘us and them’ vibe

We aren't entirely sure yet. I certainly would want to piss the neighbours off with renting it out. To be honest, I'd rather not rent it out but that would mean months on end of it being unoccupied. The plan would be to move to this house FT upon DHs retirement.

We have our heart set on a specific place in Cornwall.

OP you are overthinking this.

Maybe. I just don't want to feel open hostility from neighbours every time we visit what is intended to be our dream home and one we would hope to retire to.

You wont.

How many years until he retires?
If you have seen a specific property now, could you buy it and then let it out longish-term to a local family?
You wouldn't be able to holiday there, but you would have the house when you retire.

You seem pretty reasonable in your other replies on this thread, but this one reads like you only care if they hate it if they're going to rude to you, and you can live with it otherwise.
My small town was ruined by secondhomers. All the young people moved away as couldn't afford it, and now it's so quiet during the week that the pub, local shops and even garage have all closed down. It's now a 20 minute drive to nearest bigger town to buy anything, ever, and taxis don't want to take you back after a night out because they won't get a fare back. There's other factors as well, and you eventually moving there makes it a little different, but consider what it is that you enjoy. If it's a small town/village friendly vibe, you're adding to it's demise. In that case, keep visiting and supporting the local economy in a hotel, and then buy when you're ready to retire.

Our friends bought a beautiful holiday only flat near Sennen - there are lots around if you look for them and you don’t pay double council tax on them either.

If you are not going to move there full time then buying now as an investment for retirement against house price inflation and renting it out on a long lease until you move might be a good compromise. The areas that suffer from Airbnbs also suffer from a lack of houses to rent long term as Airbnb makes a lot more money. The businesses in popular coastal destinations are finding it hard to get staff as there is nowhere to live long term .

This is a great idea if you're actually concerned about your impact.