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How hated will we be?

641 replies

SecondH · 10/06/2026 15:08

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?

OP posts:
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MerchWill · 10/06/2026 22:40

Goldenbear · 10/06/2026 22:21

If they don't have a Welsh accent?

According to these tales, people switch to Welsh as soon as person walks in. Welsh speakers speak Welsh. Why would they converse in English amongst friends and family?

KeepPumping · 10/06/2026 22:41

Goldenbear · 10/06/2026 22:36

Way before my start on earth i'm afraid.

You are allowed to watch movies made before you were born last time I checked with Movie HQ.

TonTonMacoute · 10/06/2026 22:43

Corvidsarethebest · 10/06/2026 18:55

The thing is, there's a narrative that these would be thriving communities full of families and children and it's just the mean nasty second homers that is stopping that. I spent a lot of time in Cornwall 20 years ago and it was incredibly deprived as well as inaccessible due to the lack of a motorway/ink roads, in fact, it was designated one of the poorest areas in the whole of Europe which is why it got so much money from the EU.

It's just not true that there are heaps of jobs in this area, and there also were declining school numbers prior to second homers. People with families often end up moving away for work, which is understandable. Most of the people living in social housing were never going to get mortgages and some of the estates on the hills were isolated, depressing and completely cut off financially and in other ways from the rest of the UK.

It was also, and remains to some extent, an area suspicious of outsiders and in those days that meant literally anyone who wasn't born there, I remember being stared at in the local pub! I still wouldn't be racing to live there due to this attitude.

I'm not sure Cornwall has it worse than anyone else, it's had the most amount of investment of the poorer regions and it hasn't lifted the economy off more than for tourism really, which is a shame, but then everyone did vote for Brexit having had this huge sum from the EU, quite incredible.

I do agree with you about the job situation, it's delusional to think that places like Padstow and Port Isaac will go back to being thriving fishing ports if only all the second home owners sold up, there are so many other problems. They have invested in broadband but investment in roads, rail and other access and infrastructure are still lagging behind. BTW, a lot of migrants live and work down here, I live near the Ginsters factory and nearly all their workers are East European. Our DS, born and brought up here, is living and working London.

The problem with all the EU money was the difficulty getting it out of Whitehall. There were so many rules, guidelines and restrictions all imposed by British civil servants. For instance a Cornish haulage company wanted the money spent updating the roads so they could invest in bigger trucks to expand their business, but it was refused because the 'rules' said the money mustn't be used if it increased traffic pollution. That was only one of many similar examples and that's why so many voted for Brexit although obviously their real problem is still there. This thread shows how much negativity and bias there is against Cornwall and the Cornish. People joke about it but the prejudice does real harm.

TransportNerd · 10/06/2026 22:46

Good.

MulberryBrandy · 10/06/2026 22:46

KeepPumping · 10/06/2026 22:39

Why? If people in Cornwall think it is a badge of honour to hate someone from the next village and never to have been to London or Manchester or wherever why should you support that kind of nonsense, are we saying the locals are somehow Godlike and own, or maybe created the land and the sea? What are the locals sitting on benefits and moaning about "incomers" doing to support other communities? A second home owner who is hardly there will be getting gouged for council tax, that is more than enough "support" for the local community.

I can assure you that we are not troglodytes and our partners are not relatives. When you are a visitor you should respect the place and its people if you are a civilised person. The Age of Empire is no more.

Pleasering · 10/06/2026 22:49

This reply has been deleted

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Goldenbear · 10/06/2026 22:52

KeepPumping · 10/06/2026 22:39

Why? If people in Cornwall think it is a badge of honour to hate someone from the next village and never to have been to London or Manchester or wherever why should you support that kind of nonsense, are we saying the locals are somehow Godlike and own, or maybe created the land and the sea? What are the locals sitting on benefits and moaning about "incomers" doing to support other communities? A second home owner who is hardly there will be getting gouged for council tax, that is more than enough "support" for the local community.

I've read the film synopsis now, I mean I wasn't American or a man, I was a girl and that helped but being a bar person, I did see a fight (had to try and break it up and failed) between a local and a non local. I did hear lots of moaning about DFLs in particular. This was twenty years ago though. I personally didn't want to stay there as I am Londoner at the end of the day but I also have Scandinavian heritage where I have been brought up with the idea that you should be content in life and moderate i.e. not greedy and have more houses than you need.

Bikenutz · 10/06/2026 22:54

StandingDeskDisco · 10/06/2026 15:34

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.

This is a sensible suggestion.

LateMumma · 10/06/2026 22:55

It’s awful. I live in Cornwall and so many of our communities are dying. Second home owners, whether air bnbing or using it exclusively themselves, are widely resented. Our businesses can’t survive on summertime only occupation, our schools are closing, our young people can’t afford to stay here. Please, please don’t do this. Rent an existing holiday home or buy a restricted residency (designated hol) home

OtterLovesItsRock · 10/06/2026 22:55

SecondH · 10/06/2026 15:24

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.

*The local economy has issues caused by lack of input from absentee property owners.

Fixed it.

Please don't do this.

Thulpelly · 10/06/2026 22:55

Ask yourself if you would want to live in a town where 1/3 of the homes aren’t lived in and you potentially don’t have any neighbours?

Or …Where people are being pushed out because second home buyers are pushing up house prices?

Goldenbear · 10/06/2026 22:56

MerchWill · 10/06/2026 22:40

According to these tales, people switch to Welsh as soon as person walks in. Welsh speakers speak Welsh. Why would they converse in English amongst friends and family?

I don't think they should, I was responding to a post about how somebody would know if a stranger was Welsh or not. Presumably if they spoke English but they were Welsh they would have a Welsh accent? If they were from England, Scotland, they wouldn't?

Goldenbear · 10/06/2026 23:00

KeepPumping · 10/06/2026 22:41

You are allowed to watch movies made before you were born last time I checked with Movie HQ.

Well yes but when you are not from that generation I would argue that it is more the very well known films that would be ones you probably watch like the Wicker Man, Apocalypse Now or even All The President's Men.

WhatNextImScared · 10/06/2026 23:01

yonem · 10/06/2026 15:38

Have you thought through the practicalities of retiring to Cornwall? When you’re too old to be able to drive and far from the hospital for appointments/emergencies?

This is incredibly important. Worth thinking about.

Wr had a holiday there and DD got very sick, it was a hour in the ambulance to Truro. It scared the shit out of me.

KeepPumping · 10/06/2026 23:01

Goldenbear · 10/06/2026 22:52

I've read the film synopsis now, I mean I wasn't American or a man, I was a girl and that helped but being a bar person, I did see a fight (had to try and break it up and failed) between a local and a non local. I did hear lots of moaning about DFLs in particular. This was twenty years ago though. I personally didn't want to stay there as I am Londoner at the end of the day but I also have Scandinavian heritage where I have been brought up with the idea that you should be content in life and moderate i.e. not greedy and have more houses than you need.

People do need the holiday home though, that is the point, maybe they have a stressful job in London?

thedogmademessagain · 10/06/2026 23:02

SecondH · 10/06/2026 20:16

I do take on board some of her finer points, but prophesising that I'm going die alone and my family won't visit me got a tad flamboyant.

There's a good bit of truth in it though. When you move people say they'll come and visit regularly. The reality of visiting regularly then kicks in and they don't come to stay or visit much at all. People are busy, they have their own life challenges crop up, they have commitments. Then all the promises go out the window. When they say it before you move, they do mean it. They do intend to visit. It's the reality of the effort involved to do so that slows it down or kills friendships. If you can establish local community, good, but you won't have a long history with those people and those from the old location will tend to become more distant.

bridgetreilly · 10/06/2026 23:03

Just don’t. Have holidays like normal people until you actually retire and then move.

Dearover · 10/06/2026 23:05

Laughing at the description of Penzance as being "one of the main hospitals". St Ives is great until you get old, can't climb the hills and need a trip to the bank / dentist / deli etc

TransportNerd · 10/06/2026 23:05

KeepPumping · 10/06/2026 23:01

People do need the holiday home though, that is the point, maybe they have a stressful job in London?

Nobody needs a bloody holiday home.

Dearover · 10/06/2026 23:07

KeepPumping · 10/06/2026 23:01

People do need the holiday home though, that is the point, maybe they have a stressful job in London?

Nobody "needs" a holiday home. Locals need homes.

It's also slightly patronising for OP to suggest that she's doing us a favour by buying an unaffordable home.

PyongyangKipperbang · 10/06/2026 23:07

KeepPumping · 10/06/2026 23:01

People do need the holiday home though, that is the point, maybe they have a stressful job in London?

No one needs a holiday home! Thats hilarious!

Pleasering · 10/06/2026 23:08

TransportNerd · 10/06/2026 23:05

Nobody needs a bloody holiday home.

There are lots of things we don’t NEED but want. Anyone with a spare room or more than one car or lots of clothes or holidays or food falls into this category.

Goldenbear · 10/06/2026 23:10

KeepPumping · 10/06/2026 23:01

People do need the holiday home though, that is the point, maybe they have a stressful job in London?

Perhaps but I'd personally find it stressful not being resented by some in a village where I owned a second home. I found it stressful being questioned about why I was there but I was kind of let off as going out with a local.

Goldenbear · 10/06/2026 23:11

Goldenbear · 10/06/2026 23:10

Perhaps but I'd personally find it stressful not being resented by some in a village where I owned a second home. I found it stressful being questioned about why I was there but I was kind of let off as going out with a local.

That should read, 'being resented'.

Dearover · 10/06/2026 23:11

& get a good mining survey. Actually, if you don't, you'll work wonders for the local economy

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