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How hated will we be?

737 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:
Thread gallery
12
NorthYorkshireTillIIdie · 11/06/2026 23:09

SecondH · 11/06/2026 23:08

It looks like the reception wouldn't be much better in that case anyway. I know MN is notoriously catty, but if this is a reflection of the general feeling it might be best to let the place rot.

Have you been on the gin?

Cooshawn · 11/06/2026 23:12

I'm from the coast. Second home owners are broadly disliked in my home town. Firstly because the ones that sit empty for months on end decimate local activity and make it difficult for small local traders to stay in business. But secondly, and more crucially, the ones that rent as holiday lets have absolutely battered the housing market. People buying houses to then rent them out for daft amounts per week means there's far fewer long term rentals or houses to buy, and those that are available are too expensive.

Nobody would be nasty to you, but you wouldn't be made to feel welcome either.

SecondH · 11/06/2026 23:18

NorthYorkshireTillIIdie · 11/06/2026 23:09

Have you been on the gin?

What a strange question. I've read all of the comments and whilst I understand second home owners are disliked it appears tourists and incomers aren't all that welcome either, which is news to me.

Have you?

OP posts:
NorthYorkshireTillIIdie · 11/06/2026 23:21

SecondH · 11/06/2026 23:18

What a strange question. I've read all of the comments and whilst I understand second home owners are disliked it appears tourists and incomers aren't all that welcome either, which is news to me.

Have you?

No

After a balanced thread you suddenly post multiple comments in quick succession at 11pm with really negative comments

You said- 'but if this is a reflection of the general feeling it might be best to let the place rot'.

Why would a place rot because you are not buying a 2nd home there ?

SecondH · 11/06/2026 23:26

NorthYorkshireTillIIdie · 11/06/2026 23:21

No

After a balanced thread you suddenly post multiple comments in quick succession at 11pm with really negative comments

You said- 'but if this is a reflection of the general feeling it might be best to let the place rot'.

Why would a place rot because you are not buying a 2nd home there ?

Edited

What is negative about recognising it might not be the best place to buy after reading the opinions. I'd call that realistic. I also didn't realise there were rules to how I post. I've been busy and came back to the thread to see many more comments, I've been reacting to and addressing them as I go.

'Let the place rot' as in the property than has stood unoccupied for 2 years, is still on the market and needs renovation. You'd know that if you had read my comments.

Had I been on the gin, I'd have been in bed by 9pm. Rather ironic you make such a comment and talk about negativity though.

OP posts:
Tinywhitebutterfly · 11/06/2026 23:30

'Not letting the house rot' is so altruistic of you, maybe the National Trust will give you a grant.

SecondH · 11/06/2026 23:32

Tinywhitebutterfly · 11/06/2026 23:30

'Not letting the house rot' is so altruistic of you, maybe the National Trust will give you a grant.

That is what's happening though.

OP posts:
daleylama · 11/06/2026 23:33

MabelAnderson · 10/06/2026 15:13

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

How?

thesealion · 11/06/2026 23:41

Not the point of the thread but your definition of “needs gutting” is very different to mine. I don’t like the decor but it’s perfectly liveable! When you said it needs a full renovation I was imagining wires hanging out the walls, holes in ceilings and and a floor that would splinter as soon as any weight was put on it.

NorthYorkshireTillIIdie · 11/06/2026 23:43

daleylama · 11/06/2026 23:33

How?

They don't live there

They don't pay council tax

They don't send their children to the village school so it closes
They don't attend the local church and so the congregation dwindles and they no longer run sessions such as parent and toddler (in a village the church is about community not religion) They loose the Vicar
The Village shop closes as the Tesco and Ocado vans pull up at 7pm on a Friday (they spend no money in the village)
The Pubs close (2/4 in my village)
They think it is ok to be making noise in the garden at 1am on a Tuesday in June
They cycle past the remembrance service at the cenotaph laughing and joking (ok that one may be very personal)

justasking111 · 11/06/2026 23:46

SecondH · 10/06/2026 15:49

Fortunately it is a 20 minute drive to the main hospital there, which is actually less time than the drive to hospital where we live now. It's a high tourist area so there are plenty of amenities.

I'd check that hospital out. Friends in Cornwall say their main hospital is in dire straits. I'd certainly take out private health insurance now well before you retire.

NorthYorkshireTillIIdie · 11/06/2026 23:52

SecondH · 11/06/2026 23:32

That is what's happening though.

It is not rotting! You shared the link

ThinkImightbemoreofawinterpersonnow · 11/06/2026 23:54

SecondH · 10/06/2026 15:19

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.

No that’s much worse, different people coming is unstable and I hate not knowing them and being cautious with my Dd (rest of neighbourhood all know one another)
Also, short term renters often go care as much and make noise, play music, in late etc
Our next door neighbours come to stay a few times a year, the rest of the time it’s empty, that’s fine with us. House a bit round the corner constantly rents out, it’s awful

ohwhattodowithmylife · 11/06/2026 23:58

It destroys the towns/ villages. As someone who lives I a costal village they are not well liked, most will not be rude to your face if course but you will not be accepted.

GwendolineFairfax8 · 12/06/2026 00:14

justasking111 · 11/06/2026 23:46

I'd check that hospital out. Friends in Cornwall say their main hospital is in dire straits. I'd certainly take out private health insurance now well before you retire.

I am in Cornwall and when my husband had a near-fatal seizure the ambulance was on our drive within ten minutes. He was blue-lighted to Treliske Hospital where all staff members were fantastic with him throughout his stay - and so kind to me.

Our surgery is brilliant too.

That said, they are under extreme pressure which would be helped by developers being made to pay higher levies for essential infrastructure before they are granted planning permission.

Greyhoundsmittenlady · 12/06/2026 00:16

Use it regularly, get involved in the community and shop locally and it might work out okay, especially if you intend to retire there eventually.

Walkingonairdays · 12/06/2026 00:21

Mumoushka · 11/06/2026 17:58

It s not even our second home and we're resented by the locals for allegedly forcing prices up. We ve been in this house 8 years and next door still haven't spoken to us. The mother ignores us but the daughter and son in law are actively hostile. Luckily there are enough friendly incomers for it not to matter.

That is dreadful. Life long residents have no more rights to an area than new comers. As far as people who own holiday homes & live there itermittently they also have every right to buy the property. Nobody has a right to ownership of a whole area regardless of whether they have lived there for generations or whether they are new. As far as letting out their property as a holiday home as long as the occupiers are not anti-social it is nobody elses business. What is the difference between owning a home you live in ocassionaly and living there full time. The home belongs to someone & it's up to them to do as they please with it.

thedogmademessagain · 12/06/2026 00:26

Other issues aside, and I do love the view, is this really the best house if you are looking for your final home to get old in? You'd have to install a bathroom downstairs and convert one of the lower rooms into a bedroom. That section is also not going to be easy to maintain when you're older. We'll be looking for a home that will last us for the rest of our lives at some point, and those are the things I'm looking at.

neilyoungismyhero · 12/06/2026 00:41

JudgeJ · 10/06/2026 15:46

Then it's a pity that so many locals have profitted from selling their homes as second homes!

I agree I always think the same. Bloody hypocrites.

TeaPot496 · 12/06/2026 01:15

neilyoungismyhero · 12/06/2026 00:41

I agree I always think the same. Bloody hypocrites.

Of course a local would usually prefer to sell to people who were using it as their family home (assuming they can afford to, what with all these bleddy emmets pushing up prices 🙄), e.g if they were choosing between bidders.

Wishing14 · 12/06/2026 05:48

To be fair if local people don’t want 2nd home owners in their area they can simply sell their homes to local people. But they want the inflated prices and choose to sell to the highest bidders.

abracadabra1980 · 12/06/2026 05:54

Are there not any 'local occupancy' bye laws in Cornwall? There are in other areas of the country that have this problem.

namechange62 · 12/06/2026 06:14

Troublein · 10/06/2026 16:29

Yes you will be hated a lot.

You will be killing the place you choose and when you do finally retire, there will not be kind or helpful neighbours because of what you have done.

It is their children, their friends who will have been unhoused for your dream, so if you have a fall nobody is going to care or help you.

There is a massive shortage of doctors and hospital beds in Cornwall all year round, and they are put under tremendous pressure every tourist season.
I hope you aren't expecting to get great medical care as an incomer who helped kill another village/town and added nothing to an area for everyone who really lives there.

I've seen so many people from upcountry move down to Cornwall, then endlessly bitch they don't get tourist treatment in areas they have impoverished by inflating prices.
If you want work done, you'll struggle to find anyone because you will have priced most of those people out of the area.

I have known nurses who have to sleep in cars and RVs illegally parked because of second home owners to do their job in Cornwall - that is nurses who you expect to treat you when you come in from your dream retirement home at an age when you are more likely to put high demand on medical services.

There are usually just under 50 ambulances to cover the entire county at peak times so hope you aren't going to rely on one of those as you could be waiting days.

I know what happens to old incomers when they get sick and start bed blocking locals, as there are only just about 1100 hospital beds in the whole county including mental health beds, acute care, the lot.
They are not loved.

Book yourself funeral plans before you move down, because your retirement plan is to die alone in an area where you have left a house empty for 6 years then turned up expecting locals to stand by you and be your community after you have harmed it.
You'll then get to enjoy the airB&B scum too, who will turn up and vomit all over your property while they have a screaming drunk fight in the street and you'll feel about them the way the locals feel about you

I know Cornish people who hate anyone from the next village over and are proud they've never been more than 30 miles from home in their life.
You'll be an emmet til the day you die and if your family live far enough away, they won't bother coming down to your funeral.
Cornish nursing homes are full of old wealthy incomers who get no visitors from one end of the year til the next unless someone is concerned they have been written out of the will.
Family stay in touch for the first bit when incomers move down, but then it's just too far away from their everyday lives and there are other places they want to go in the little time off they have while their kids don't really know their distant old relatives as they hardly ever see them, so they drift away after a few years.

You'll get people coming onto your thread telling you people will love you, it's all fine etc...

I've seen your type countless times over the past fifty years, first their friends who come to visit die off or get too sick to travel so they stop visiting, then their family get caught up in their own lives, then they find they are surrounded by strangers they have nothing in common with.

It's the same story 90% of the time unless it's people who have family already in the area who are moving back.

It won't be so bad when there are still two of you, but there will be nobody to share the strain with when the first gets sick, then after they die you will be alone in a place where nobody cares about you just when you get super needy.

Don't imagine you'll have friendly neighbours who pop in to make sure you are okay when you are alone.
People who can afford to work as carers have been long since priced out by people like you, so you'll struggle to get any home help if you need it.

They might not be rude to your face, but you will have zero goodwill when you really need it as you get older.
You are not of any benefit to the place you want to turn up when you are at your least productive and most expensive stage of your life to a community.

You are the reason a teacher has to live in a bedsit, the doctor can't treat the local guy because you took the appointment, the local primary school has to close because young families have been pushed out of the area by you.

But hey, I bet it's a pretty looking house in the pictures on a sunny day, so what could possibly go wrong?
Enjoy being old, alone and vulnerable with a great view though.

Wow! Harsh but actually quite true! (as someone who lives in one of the villages mentioned)
And whilst I'm not directly affected by Air BB my friends life was blighted by the selfish owners who rented their 4 bed house out..putting a huge hot tub within 6ft of her bedroom window.
My friend nearly had a breakdown because of the hen/stag parties. live sex show for hours anyone?!

Soberinthecity · 12/06/2026 06:24

This sounds like you’re more worried about how you will feel rather than about how your 2nd home will make other residents feel - either by sitting empty, or occupied with annoying people coming and going.

As somebody else has said if you treat it as you’re home, shop locally, get involved with the community and use amenities then it shouldn’t be a problem.

Dearover · 12/06/2026 06:42

SecondH · 11/06/2026 23:00

I really don't see your point. I don't plan to be annoying so why would I be asking MN how annoying will we be?

You would be annoying by leaving a property essentially empty for the next few years and not making a contribution in all the ways you've already been told.

By asking "How hated will we be?" you're already getting off on the wrong foot, by deciding you're going to be a victim.