To think that owning a second home to use as a holiday home is extremely selfish?

[benadrylcucumberpatch]

It would be a different story if there was a surplus of vacant properties . As it stands holiday home owners turn communities into ghost towns, inflate prices in desirable areas (many of which are rural with low wages) and displace people who would live in the property full time.

Aibu to think this is selfish and reprehensible? Why are such people not villified for taking more than they need in such an extreme way?

I should quantify that by saying 130+ properties within 10 miles of the mainline station.

Clearly there are way more than that in the whole county for sale...

You’re still not getting it, are you @Dorsetdays? Never mind, while some of us acknowledge our good fortune and don’t judge others who don’t share it, I guess there’s still some hope.

There is crapload of properties for 160k and under even within 20miles from London centre. Some examples.

North www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/51952514

West www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/51767980

South www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/51274408

East www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/51625432

All on a trainline.

What is it I’m not getting? I certainly get that you will continue to keep coming up with excuses to explain why you can’t do [insert whatever it is anyone suggests] 🙄

Sometimes it's the cards you are dealt, other times you make your own luck.

One ds can own 5 properties at just under 28, another from the same family can be just affording one at 24.
All dc brought up the same with the same privileges or in this case lack of.

You’re not getting that there is huge swathe of people in this country who for a multitude of reasons work in lowly paid jobs. That’s their lot. They’ll never earn enough to be given a mortgage. And that was fine before we became a society obsessed with home ownership, before right to buy devastated social housing, before buy to let became a pension plan, before people who “worked hard” started buying second homes because one wasn’t enough.

Now those people are fucked. Many of them live in substandard accommodation at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords because it’s all the wage they earn will stretch to. They can’t save a deposit - just living takes all their money, no mortgage provider would touch them because they’re probably on a zero hours contract.

I shouldn’t have to explain all this to you. If I can see and understand it from my position of privilege, you could too if you just opened your mind and your eyes.

Good luck if you can afford it. Can’t see how anybody has the right to tell you how to spend your money.
I have a house with more rooms than occupants — should I be vilified for that?
Having worked too many hours in too stressful jobs that required too many academic/professional qualifications - I feel what I’ve got has been honestly earned. I’ve had to move several times and compete in whatever housing market there was in that location. I don’t have a second home - prefer to travel to different places.
There seems to be a reluctance of some people to move from where they were born and away from ‘family and friends’. That is fine - but it is a choice with consequences. I’ve moved into areas where I’ve been called an ‘off comer and in comer’ as if I should dare to buy a house put up in the free market by ‘a local’. Seriously - ridiculous.
No doubt I couldn’t afford to live in the style I’d like in the city of my birth - but there you go - a consequence of choice.

Your aunt will have needed and will
In future need lots of people to support her. and that’s why despite not having used a maternity bed (school and health care is what every one gets, regardless of whether they have a parent) she needs To have regard to other people: in fact maybe more that those who put in the work !

Many councils tax second homes very highly now to make up for the social cost to the community. This tax is the right idea, second homes still possible, but you have to pay properly for it.
The problem is the loophole that means businesses can avoid it, so many are changing into AirBnbs to avoid the tax.

They had the same opportunity to buy the property as anyone else. Just because they took it does not mean they are wrong. It's up to those selling the property to decide who buys it.

I wasn’t accusing people of material dishonesty, I was talking about how people don’t acknowledge the privilege they have in being able to achieve success

Privilege? No privilege, no inheritance just a determination to leave behind the struggle of living in a sink estate as a child, hard graft, long hours, lots of study, lots of moves, putting health and well-being at risk and lots of regrets. Like I’ve said - I don’t own a second home, but I’d not assume ‘privilege’ got other people their apparent ‘good fortune’.

Did the op say that shes 28 ? At 28 I was getting ready to move back home ( I didn’t particularly want to but needs must ) to save up to get married and build a house. I’m assuming the op wanted a family earlier or to live with her boyfriend / husband / partner . You cannot have it all . My sacrifice was to delay setting up home with my dh . We got married after 5 years, having never lived together .
I would have gotten married quite happily at 28 or moved in with my boyfriend but I knew that if we did it that way , we would just delay what we wanted - which was a house .
At 28 I didn’t have a car , had never been on a holiday with friends etc . So many people complain about not being able to save 10/20 k for a deposit but have travelled extensively, drive expensive cars and have children before they buy a house . I’ll save my tears for those who deserve it !

I dont have a problem with people owning 2 homes but i have a huge problem to people being blind to privilidge or good fortune.
I live in a commuter town consisting of mainly lawyers, accountants and finance people. Always lots of people on gardening leave, career breaks or sabaticals. If ever i say its nice/lucky that the other parent is at home its always "because they have worked hard for x years" one of them got a new car "as they had been working so hard". I don't begrudge these things or dispute they work hard but there's somehow the assumption they have deserved it more than us average wagers. My DH is self employed he works very hard, long hours and takes much fewer and much cheaper holidays than his higher earning mates but will never be in a position to take a couple of months off. There never any acknowlegement a person had the chance/grades/financial circumstances to go to uni, or get a recession proof job, everything is down to hard work.

"There is no reason why the people selling those houses can't sell them to a local family instead of second home owners"

If they advertised the house as being 'for sale to local people only' they could be taken to court for discrimination.

Also. How are you jumping to the assumption that I don’t understand about employment issues? I made the point some pages back that someone on NMW is not being prevented from buying a property because I have more than one, they’re prevented from buying a property because they can’t afford a mortgage.

My houses would hardly be suitable for FTB anyway as they’d be too expensive so I’m not preventing someone from getting a foot on the property ladder.

It was another poster who made the comment that they don’t see how someone would remain on NMW for their entire working life which is what was being quoted on here because at some point in a 50+ year career you would expect someone to gain experience and additional skills and therefore increases in salary commensurate with that over time.

I've not RTFT, but completely agree with you OP. I live in rural, tourist area, with lots of holiday homes that are driving house prices to the roof, it is causing the area to stagnate, as all the younger people and people with young families are having to move away to get on the housing ladder, so it is all holiday homes and retired people, it is starting to affect schools and businesses.
People as a whole don't care as long as they are ok.

I’ll save my tears for those who deserve it

Agreed. Have heard people moan about not having enough savings to get a deposit together - having blown £20,000 or more on a wedding and having kids before thinking about a permanent home. Fine, their choice, but hardly worthy of us all getting the hankies out ‘in sympathy’.

"But if you go to university and get into debt you must have looked at the statistics that getting university degree in 85% of cases means you will not get a great job afterwards."

Not at all. When I went to uni, 20 years ago, official advice was that a degree in ANY subject would help you get a better job. I still have an official leaflet somewhere with this written in it. We were actively lied to.

We couldn’t afford to buy a nice house, we were drowning in debt and could we no way of ever being able to afford to live. We were loosing at the game of life.

We moved countries, we changed the game to one we could win.

There literally are a multitude of reasons for people to spend their entire lives on minimum wage. This assumption that everyone can aspire to something better if they just work hard enough makes me want to scream.

Genuinely curious what those reasons would be as by default they would get a pay increase based on experience alone.

@Dorsetdays that was me.
Still don't know reason why. Just that there is multitude of reasons. Which ones? I guess it's not for me to know

I agree to a point- this is capitalism though and I'm guessing you buy into it in other ways and are prob' a bit jealous you don't have one. If you're an active anti capitalist great if not you're a hypocrite.

"as by default they would get a pay increase based on experience alone."

What?
No, you don't by default get a pay increase based on experience. Definitely not in the lowest paid jobs.

I work in the public sector and we have annual increments luckily, but I've moved around a lot so I don't have years and years worth of increments.

There is no reason why the people selling those houses can't sell them to a local family instead of second home owners

You can sell your house to whoever you want. Your house, your property. Reality is most people sell their home for the most money they can get. That is not the buyers fault.

"I made the point some pages back that someone on NMW is not being prevented from buying a property because I have more than one, they’re prevented from buying a property because they can’t afford a mortgage. "

Yes, and the reason why they can't afford a mortgage is because the price of houses is too high. Why do houses cost too much in rural and touristy areas? Partly, because people from richer areas push the prices up by buying second homes there.

In some of these rural areas being talked about for holiday homes, there is not an excess of highly skilled occupations with the likelihood of earning the salaries needed to buy a desirable property. There is a reason people holiday there - lack of industry, motorways, office blocks etc.