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?

Exactly what we did with my Nan's house. We turned down a better offer from a couple from Wales who claimed they would eventually move down. Instead we sold to someone whose daughter & family already lived in our village. Her son is a builder, so the renovation work stayed local. Her daughter can work near where she grew up and her children go to the local school.

I think if your neighbours knew just that there shouldn't be a problem. I personally wouldn't rent it out. I think that would get frowned upon more if I'm honest. I would much rather have the P&Q of it being empty until you visited rather than endless tourists.

Because often they have had to buy at inflated prices because of second home a buyers over the years and now have mortgage debt to clear from the proceeds perhaps?

Brilliant answer! I definitely read it that she would do it no matter what as long as the neighbours are nice to her face.
I dont think property should be left empty 90% of the time nor used majority of the time as holiday let - for all the reasons mentioned above. We have all heard of the demise of villages because of this very reason so think it's an awful idea - but I think OP is trying to justify it with 'eventually' it will be our home. I really hope there's a rethink!

I have a second home in a small village by the sea. It was my parent’ s house. I use it for my wind down respite time and when I don’t it is on Cottages.com who I would recommend as a letting platform. I use the local tradesmen for all my services, gardening, boiler, electrical etc. The locals are friendly and there is no resentment or animosity but I suppose I was a local once upon a time as used to live there. I suppose it would depend on the place where you were as there may be a housing shortage for young families. However, one thing to consider is that you will pay double the Council Tax which is a very hefty sum. I’m holding on to the house as may retire down here in later years. It’s a small and friendly community. I would also recommend that you use all the local amenities and services.

There is 'eligibility for an affordable home' which would be current/former residents, employment in the area, or connected by family.

Potentially, but incomers to Cornwall tend to be older people who are more likely to be retired so not work in the town, have a car so not use the local buses, not have kids in the school. Not always, but often.

I'm an incomer in coastal, rural Somerset. I work here but that is rare. Most incomers are retirees. A lot of them really contribute to society and volunteer which is fantastic and people are welcomed, but it is tinged with a downside.

The 'grey migrators' who head West mean an influx of wealthier people who buy the housing young families need. Those people in a few short years get older and contribute less/need more. Houses get 'no cold caller' signs, hand rails go up, the district nurse starts to call.

We have one of the oldest populations in Britain here and not enough carers or staff to keep the local GP surgery and NHS services running full time. The buses don't run in winter. The local school is atpermanent threat of closure.

But this thread is mostly about second homers rather than purely incomers. If you come to work, join in, volunteer, use services then that is contribution. Second homers, in the main, do little of this.

Mostly where I live the vendor isn't the occupier but their family/estate/executors who have long moved away or never lived here in the first place.

It's a couple of generations (at least) since local families really owned the second home type houses in my part of the West country.

The other source of property to the market is people who retired here, moved here during lockdown or have had second homes and now want out for one reason or another (lack of transport links connection, 'bleak' winters, council tax etc). These are incomers/second homers. None of these people are what you're calling local people.

The actual handover occurred decades ago.

I did all this and more, and was still told to "Go back to the city" by a disgruntled Cornish person, who also claimed you couldn't fit in until you had " 300 years of ancestors in village churchyard ".

I hadn't lived in a city for 40 years.

This doesn't take into account that very often there are two distinct types of area in coastal/rural towns.

Dartmouth is a good example. The lower town area is at sea level, easy walking to the town shops, pubs, the water. It's desirable holiday maker/second home territory with lots of little fishermans type cottages that are chi chi and expensive.
About half the houses there are second homes and they sell for a huge premium.

Then there is a higher area, away from the water. Local people live there. It's not so chi chi, it's cheaper, it's more 'warts and all'. Here local people do tend to find more local buyers.

Second homers don't want to live there. They want in the lower town. The local cannot afford to buy there.

There are two distinct markets.

I think that's the same in many places Fuzzy.
It's definitely the same for me. I'm welcome, but I'll always be an incomer.
I'm cool with that. I have a good life here, I contribute, I have friends.

I've also had the '8 generations in the churchyard' comment. There will always be an arsehole everywhere. Most people are lovely.

Edited to add - I think local opinion is formed over many decades of seeing incomers come, behave less than well and then leave a few years later. People, especially in a small place are wary. Fair enough I suppose.

They actually do!

People die or go into care homes the property has to be sold even if it is a local person. It's not greed but a necessity. Not everyone can afford to take on granny's home.

People who buy them rarely have consideration for others anyway.

In the next county to us the diehard locals expect your roots to go back centuries and for you to speak the mother tongue. I wouldn't live in some of those villages.

The 2nd homes and retirees have damaged the demographics. Schools have shut, two more this year. Shops close because the places are deserted off season when the second home owners and caravan sites are empty.

Buses and train timetables change. The retirees with complex medical conditions take up a lot of GP and hospital appointments. Our A&E isn't a safe place being understaffed and a lack of beds. Our council rates go up 10% a year. The largest slice of our costs being social care of the elderly.

But our home is in a lovely area. You just have to grit your teeth sometimes.

And no I wouldn't live in an Airbnb zone. You will regret it as a full timer.

This is an interesting post. I grew up in a large non-tourist Cornish ‘village’ where we had 3 shops and 2 pubs. The 3 shops became one purely because residents started going to the newly built Tescos two miles away (my parents included). By the way, I know this Tescos employs local people - from (vital) cleaners to management.

The two pubs have always struggled and have closed several times because of lack of custom - locals are choosing to drink at home (it is officially a deprived area). They are not pretty pubs like, for example, the Pandora Inn which people are willing to travel to and spend.

All my young life I knew that the pretty villages like Helford were ‘dead’ in winter. This is not a new thing. When I got married, we could not afford to live in the ‘holiday’ locations. We can now but it is only through years of hard work - no inheritance (not against inheritance in principle by the way).

I love seeing our seaside town (St Ives) buzzing with holidaymakers spending their money and boosting our economy. It will never be an area most locals on relatively modest wages can afford - but it never was!

I am an activist for decent social housing by the way. The OP’s potential purchase will never be that. If she goes ahead, I hope she will use local tradespeople but again, it is her money and her choice.

"It will never be an area most locals on relatively modest wages can afford - but it never was!"

Really ??? Of course it was, I have family members who have lived there throughout my childhood, they had modest incomes and could afford it. They couldn't afford to buy there now however.

It was never a purpose built holiday destination, the history shows that the turning point for St Ives was in 1877, originally a "grit-and-grime" fishing village was transformed to a holiday paradise rapidly because of two main catalysts. Number one being the opening of the branch line to St Ives in 1877, this connected the remote town to wealthy travellers from London, and secondly creative people were captivated by the unique coastal light. Famous artists began moving into the empty, converted fishermen's lofts. This sparked the creative boom in the area.

So, the claim it was never an area the locals could afford isn't actually true. Local people will have done as my ancestors did, moved the whole family to the back of the house and allowed paying guests into their homes and provided bnb for the summer months, the money made in the summer will have kept them afloat through the long hard winter months when the income from fishing and farming was unreliable.

And now, many years later, it's interesting to see that St Ives is seeing more and more people not book holidays there, preferring to find accommodation to both retire to, and to holiday in, in other areas as they feel St Ives is just too busy now.

Not quite the same but I live next door to a house that's rented out to contractors working on the new power station being built. It's a nightmare. I very much resent the owner for it but the most I do will be to make passive aggressive comments to him at any given opportunity.

If your only concern is how locals will treat you, rather than the impact - go for it. They're unlikely to egg your house or set the bins on fire.

150 years ago is effectively irrelevant. The whole country has changed so significantly since 1877 that the changes all cancel each other out.

I’m assuming those who hate tourists don’t use Airbnb themselves. They only stay in hotels?

They also don't let their children move to other parts of the country to push rental prices up and price out the locals there.

Some of the stuff the Cornish are talking about happens in cities like London, though obviously there are other differences.. Young adults will never be able to buy a property in the area they grew up. Schools are shutting as people are having fewer kids and central areas are taken up by wealthy professionals or foreign investors.

But I’m not sure you’ll hear Londoners saying we have all the lovely homegrown midwives vets and engineers we need, so everybody else stay out, and don’t come in unless you have 10 generations in the local graveyard!

I‘ve just read in my local newsletter that in our village of 1200 people, there are 1400 holiday homes.

This thread isn‘t about people moving to a new place. We‘d be happy for people to move here, the school is at threat of closure.

It‘s about houses sitting empty for 10 months a year. Or airbnbs making life a misery for people who live nearby. There being no properties for families to live in.

Throughout your childhood? So why did your family members sell up and who to (rather than keep the property in the family)?

We have watched the St Ives (and surrounding area) market for over 40 years. The right house was always out of our reach until around 2010 (when we had earned and saved enough).

Yes, in my experience, in Greater London, it was more continuously in a state of flux. Historically immigrants had settled in the East End, once they had established themselves there they aspired to live further out, people then were working hard to move to greener areas, the former Royal forests.with even more space.

There were already fewer long-term families because waves of different people, like me, were temporarily there. Since then we have had a massive increase of the population but yes we are all part of it. Remember, this is primarily about a second home - which intensifies the whole subject.