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?

We live in London and have a second home on the south coast. Only our very immediate neighbours know we don't live there full time and they don't seem bothered. I doubt any local business owners care much either. As long as we are spending money locally I don't think they are worried what our full time postcode is.

My understanding is where. I have many friends who have done this. Dorset/Kent doesn't seem to be a problem, but others with places in Norfolk and Cornwall have had a few issues.

I live on an island that has a lot of holiday homes. We don’t mind second home owners as much as the ‘wild campers’. They literally contribute nothing to the local economy. There’s definitely a divide between locals and non residents … and there’s also a sense that being attractive to second home owners pushes up property prices and the price of everything else for local people … but we can hardly stop it 🤷🏼‍♀️

If you’re planning it in Cornwall, well, good luck to you.

We've recently sold one, they tripled the council tax couldn't justify £500 per month.

Yes there are more Welsh in England than English in Wales, they don't see that.

I’m Cornish, we have special names for second home owners, and yes we hate them. Most people wouldn’t be outwardly rude, but there would always be a simmering undercurrent of deep resentment. If you love the coast, why not move there? While incomers are sometimes also hated (and we have a special name for them too) personally I don’t mind them if they are going to live there full time. The trouble is it’s almost always retired boomers who prance around the lanes in their land rovers unable to tuck into the hedges as they don’t want to scratch their cars, and don’t even think about asking them to reverse to a passing place.

I suspect bigger more vibrant bustling places aren’t impacted so much second home owners, but in small Cornish villages where half the houses are only occupied for less than 50% of the year, and those occupants don’y contribute anything to the community, the schools, the churches etc, then it’s easy to understand why people don’t like selfish folk buying up houses only to leave them empty or rent them to holiday makers.

Ok resident of Cornwall here. 1st point there is hostility towards 2nd home owners due to the housing situation in Cornwall. Lots of second homes are being sold now especially due to the double council tax for 2nd homes.
2nd point. Retiring to Cornwall DON’T
Here’s why
there is already a well above average of people over 65 in Cornwall this means that services to support the elderly are already stretched beyond what they should be this includes the NHS and social care
Care at home is difficult to get and getting a care home is very challenging and expensive and don’t think it will never happen to you it will
When you retire to a place away from family and established friends your support network goes and family don’t visit as often as they say they will and when an emergency happens that trip down to help becomes an inconvenience
Treliske hospital is constantly overwhelmed waiting lists are long as it’s now to small to serve the ever growing ageing population
I work in an area dealing with all of this and I see more and more lonely people who moved here to retire and now find themselves alone without support. Sorry to seem negative but it’s the reality .oh and when you can’t drive anymore don’t rely on the public transport it’s terrible

😂😂😂😂😂 the comments from the stuck up snobs on here is unreal..id be buying my second home and doing as I please,you'll be a long time dead and no one will care,enjoy your time on this earth OP no mind what the snobby neighbour down the road thinks fgs

My mum lived in a lovely non touristy highland village but over the years the demographic changed. Local young people couldn’t afford to live there and the second homers and good-lifers took over. It changed the dynamic totally and became little England. The people didn’t want to assimilate and would complain about local customs and traditions (mostly church things) and ways of life. They took over the community council and changed it all, all while living there part time. Loads would commute to London Monday to Friday so the village was dead through the week, which made their demands for change pointless and hypocritical because they weren’t there to have to put up with their changes.

My mum moved away in the end. She didn’t want a retirement where there was nobody within walking distance to visit or to help out in an emergency. The lovely friendly everyone knew your business village she’d grown with was full of strangers and no pub.

Do you think it is justified to hate people in this way?

I have to say in my hometown people who own 2nd homes there are not very well received. And it’s quite well known that the ‘DFL’s’ as they are called aren’t appreciated! Unfortunately it’s also priced people out of the area who grew up there all their lives then couldn’t buy a home in the area, however if we wanted to rent an air bnb we’d be spoilt for choice.

Where is it ?

The OP said that they wanted to buy so they could retire to the property. In that case surely it stands to reason they should buy when they retire if they are worried about reactions to buying a 2nd home

West Wiltshire a mile to the Somerset border

South Hams has the highest concentrations of holiday homes in the South West. Almost half the homes in lower Dartmouth have no permanent residents.

This information comes from the Dartmouth local plan

I spend time in Dartmouth every November visiting family. It's a beautiful and friendly place it is very sad to see so many closed up houses down by the water.

We bought a run down cottage in a very remote part of the UK and I also worried about this. I think the fact that you are thinking about the neighbours at this stage is helpful. Our cottage had been empty for five years and had had no work done to it for around 50 years. It had been on the market for some time, so I felt that if a local person had wanted it, they could have bought it. It’s not an expensive part of the UK. We spent 18 months renovating and we used four local tradesmen who all knew each other. They were great. We bought the kitchen locally, all flooring was bought locally. We used a local skip hire company, roofing company and damp-proofing company. We bought the stove locally and a local team installed it. (There is no mains gas here and only phase one electricity). All in we spent over £100k in the community during this period.
We love it. It’s a 4.5 hour drive each way for us and we aim to be there for at least 8 to 10 days a month. We don’t rent it out. My kids love it and come with their partners. We bring some food as there is only a v small local shop but we always buy staples there. Despite the remoteness, there are two restaurants nearby. We book to eat out whenever we are up and they have a table (so less in summer when they are busy but every time in the winter). we pay double council tax and this will rise to 4 x council tax soon. It will cost around £10k a year in council tax by that stage so we may not be able to afford it then. Energy costs are also expensive. It costs 0.85p a day empty but £15 a day when we are there.
People have been super friendly. We’ve made some really good friends. Interestingly, I have family connections in the area. Most of the people who now live there are not local. There is always a tension between preserving fragile communities, creating jobs and income and keeping remote areas unspoiled. Many of these communities rely on tourism for income so feelings are mixed. You may find you are more welcome than you imagine. We certainly were.
There will always be people who see second homes as morally reprehensible and others who believe any property based business is evil. They often have loud voices. I don’t believe either of these things. If you are true to your principles, sensitive to sensitivities and generally good neighbours who support the community in any way you can, you’ll be fine. Enjoy your dream.

As someone that lives on the coast and can’t even buy my first home because of people like you, I hope they don’t like you very much.

We have a second home, have had it since 1986, we've actually owned the house for far longer than most of the locals. Initially we made friends down there but now just have two friendly neighbours, the rest are just not interested.

We went out of our way to buy a house that had been on the market for several years and was very run down, several local people told us that they'd looked at it but decided that it would involve too much work. We've done it up over the years and initially did not have large expenses. Over the years we've done the roof, a new kitchen, installed central heating and modern electrics, and put in a new stone floor downstairs with damp protection underneath. It's probably in better condition than most local houses.

There are have been many houses for sale in the village since last year, many second home owners who can't afford the double council tax, but some locals too who want to move. I'm told that most of them aren't even getting viewings and two local estate agents have gone bust.

I wouldn't recommend buying a second home in the current financial climate, we will sell before too long, once the market picks up again which will be a few years I suspect.

You’ll be hated. Sorry

I think I’d leave Cornwall to the locals - they always seem quite hostile to incomers. I wouldn’t spend a penny there and they’ll be quite grateful I didn’t too!

I should add that there is no work in the area apart from tourism and all the children who are brought up there leave as soon as they can. Our few friends in the area all have childen living elsewhere in the country or the world.
The house prices are really not that high, other than for bungalows which most older people seem to want, but because there is no work there is no way that younger people want to buy anyway.
Our initial thought was that we'd be retiring to the area but actually there is very little to do, the public transport is not great and the hospital is miles and miles away, only reachable by car.
It's a lovely area in the summer and our family do spend a lot of time there over the year, but the winters are long and boring.
Our immediate neighbour retired there but bitterly regrets it.

I live in Cornwall, I absolutely do not waste my time “hating” individual second homers. I choose to put my energy into changing the system that has made housing unaffordable - which is a problem in many parts of the country.

Buy the house if you want it, someone else will and they’re not likely to be local!

They have found a property they like, which needs renovation so it suits them to buy now.

Don't be naive. How would you like to live next door to a house with a weekly/fortnightly rotation of people living next door to you, cutting loose as they are on their holidays?
THATs how the people living around you 'holiday house' will feel.
If you are honest, you'd hate it.
Add to that the fact they every house being used as a holiday rental is one less for locals to live in & you'll get the picture.
Holiday home owners are despised for a reason. The fact that you have posted on MN shows you know that you will not be popular.