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?

it's very well known that in many places which have been overrun by second home owners there is a huge sense of anger where homes are being left empty for 11 months of the year and local families can't buy. Fair enough if that's not the case where you are, but in many places there is.

North coast.

I think the area makes a difference. We have a flat down on the south coast near Poole. It's a pretty affluent area, easily accessible from London so although there is a fair few second homes down there, there is not a 'hollowed out' feeling to the place as it's busy and thriving anyway. As such we never detect any resentment from anyone.

I don't know about places like Cornwall, certainly you hear a lot of resentment.

How much would you be there? When do you plan to retire?

We have friends who have a second home in a popular holiday area. They visit for weekends fairly frequently, and longer stays in the summer. It's never rented out though, so probably does feel empty a lot of the time to neighbours.

However, our friends have a great relationship with their neighbours. They join in with the social aspect of the village and seem to have made close friends. They love it!

I guess every situation is different though but thought I would share a success story.

Quiet despair in our neck of the woods, that second home owners don't understand what effect they have. But nobody is actively rude.

Yes - constant streams of holiday makers who often don’t give a shit about noise, parking, being neighbourly, do not add to the community (because why should then when they are there for a week). But why would you care if you are not there that often?

I’m in North Cornwall. I wouldn’t hate you 😂 and wouldn’t blame you, it’s beautiful.

I think that I am in the minority though!

I was going to say - you’ll be fine as long as it’s not Cornwall.

People in Cornwall hate holidaymakers and second home owners, and are very vocal about it.

I don’t know why you’d bother going there. There’s so many other lovely coastal places - Devon, Dorset, Isle of Wight, Wales. Literally anywhere else would be more welcoming.

We are planning to retire close to my DD. She lives in an area with lots of secomd homes/holiday lets and so do we. I have actually stopped looking in estate agents because I have seen several houses that would be ideal but we are not ready to buy yet.
We could afford it, especially if we let it when we weren't using it, and it would make sense as we visit fairly often and DD doesn't really have room for us. But I am not going to do it for two reasons. Firstly, the reason that DD doesn't have room for us is that despite both her and her husband having decent jobs the only house they could afford is small and has needed a huge amount of work as prices there are sky high. Second home ownership has priced families who actually live there out of the market. Its similar where I live, but I think it's worse where DD is. Second is that I know how much some of the people where I live dislike living next to an AirBnB or similar. Nobody I know really minds purpose built holiday accomodation or farms converting their outbuildings etc, but holiday homes in the middle of residential areaa can be really disruptive, as well as takinga home that might have been bought by a family to live and work in the area, who's sent their kids to the village school etc.
I don't want to be one of those people, both because I think it's a bad thing to do and also because I don't want to make myself unpopular with the local community when I do intend to become part of it within the next few years. So I've stopped looking to reduce temptation and am telling myself that if there are suitable houses coming on the market now there's a good chance that there will be others when we're actually ready to move.

During the 'rush hour' , Truro IS 20 minutes away from Truro.
Anyway, if you can afford 20 minutes from Truro, double council tax won't bother you. Unless everyone else is a second home owner, you won't be popular.

Get a static caravan on a park that’s geared up to people staying between 38-45 weeks of the year.
We live in the SouthWest in a fairly large city near the coast. I love a more rural location in peace and quiet.
We wouldn’t be able to afford a second proper home, what we have is a static caravan on a very small site about an hour away from home set in the countryside.
Its got 2 bedrooms, kitchen, en-suite etc
You can’t rent them out to tourists on our site because the owners of the site said that people staying on them usually don’t follow the rules as they are only there for a short time.
Even if I had the money now for a second home, I wouldn’t buy one. I love our little static, and probably go up there every 3 weeks for a long weekend and during the school holidays.
I’d hate to live next to an air b and b, people on holiday aren’t always that mindful of the people living next door as they won’t have to see them again.

Did Wales give up on burning holiday cottages?
I know I'm showing my age.

Absolutely not.

I should have said one of the main hospitals. Not the main hospital.

Ignore that person. Holiday lets generate tax revenues; keep local pubs, shops, restaurants in business; employ local people for cleaning. You will cover your costs too. I’ve just sold mine after 8 mainly successful years. I had nice neighbours and they said the guests were fine. It’s Devon not magaluf.

Cornwall is the perfect tinderbox of collapse of industry, still being one of the most economically deprived areas of Europe, having a lack of affordable housing, and beautiful - so everyone wants to come here.

Locals remember the second homeowners and tourists who descended during lock downs and the gaps in-between lockdowns. A notable minority of them complained that nothing was open, that the service levels wasn't as expected and that they were being asked to wear masks and use hand sanitiser. They said "We've come away to forget about all of that".

Our CCU had 15 beds.

It's the blind insistence that Cornish depend on the tourist pound, that it is the biggest driver of turnover and progress, that they are doing us a favour. It isn't.

If you’re not living there often then it’s not a 2nd HOME really is it? I think it will be rubbish for the neighbours having regular renters/air b and b all the time. You wouldn’t like it I assume?

Yes this, the people who bought my old neighbours house at my last property turned it into an air bnb, it’s why we moved, I was very close to putting a hosepipe through the letter box and leave it running for a couple of days but was talked out of it , I hated them .

Cornwall-dweller here. Not a big fan of second homes/second-home owners to be honest because of the damage they (indirectly) do to local infrastructure and local house prices. (I have young adult kids and it is very hard to imagine them being able to stay here and buy their own houses.)
It also doesn't help our hospital/social services when people retire down here! We have people being offered jobs at the hospital and turning them down because they can't find anywhere to live. In the nicest possible way, we want them, not you!
That said, I wouldn't be unpleasant or hostile to you - I recognise that you have the right to live where you want and buy what property you want. Most of the people I know feel the same way - we'd rather you didn't come, but if you do we won't be horrible to you!

My neighbour has loads of tourists in and out of her house. It's not a second home, she's just away a lot with work, so she does a property swap scheme. We've never had any bother!

There is only one main hospital, in Truro.

We are a very poor county. Second home owners are a scourge on our society and are adding to the problems, not contributing.

Why don't you just spend a few quid each year renting an apartment, caravan or hotel room and invest in the economy instead?

You should be aware that healthcare in Cornwall is not great. A lot of the specialists get bussed in from Plymouth on two week rotations. I know the cardiac service there is particularly appalling as I know of at least 1 person who died because of the poor care they received. Also I believe they have some of them worst waiting lists in the country.
Honestly I love the area and have visited dozens of times, but there are definitely downsides of retiring there. As long as you are fully aware of the downsides of living there (driving getting especially essential!) then go for it!

Yes! I remember the ‘not the 9 o’clock news’ takeoff of the advert :- “Come home to a real fire, buy a holiday cottage in wales”

@SecondH so if you run a furnished holiday let there are 70 plus pieces of legislation that can apply to it. its not just a case of flinging open the doors and as the owner its your responsibility to make sure that you comply. and with registration schemes and bed taxes coming you will have to comply with these as well or you wont be able to advertise anywhere. just a few things to think about:

1. you need a written fire risk assessment. fire safety is above and beyond building reg standard so you will need things like hard wired smoke alarms in all rooms, thumb turns on exits, FD30 fire doors and lots of other stuff. it could easily add 5 - 10k on your purchase price
2. you need to pay for the rubbish to be taken away we are in cornwall and they are very hot on this. its a legal requirement people who rent out their house and dont do this are breaking the law.
3. public liability insurance
4. cost of changeovers in cornwall is pretty expensive so could easily be a couple of hundred pounds a time.
5. mortgage - if you have a mortgage on the house then it needs to be a commercial mortgage if you renting it out, even for one night and commercial mortgages are much more expensive.

Join an organisation called PASC - professional association of self caterers for more information on what you need to do to be legally compliant. and be aware of how this will affect both your tax status now and when you come to sell. be fully up to speed go into this with your eyes open.

there are lots of facebook groups - holiday let owners help and chat is a good one.

We have a place in Anglesey. We don’t let it out but visit all year round. It’s about not being a dick - we speak a bit of Welsh, support the local RNLI crew, eat, drink and shop locally, employ local “help” and are polite and respectful. I’ve never seen any open hostility but aware that feelings run high in Wales on the subject.

If asked, I am happily to explain that I have a disabled DS and we can’t fly (and that his autism makes it challenging to visit somewhere new). I don’t feel particularly minded to give up the little bit of normality our second home gives us because others don’t like it.