To think there would be less of a housing crisis if people stopped buying second homes!

[Okunoshima]

Before anyone says anything, I understand that some people have second homes as private rentals and understand the need for rental properties

What I'm talking about is people buying second homes as holiday homes to live in on weekends/holidays/lend out to their friends.

Where I live there are a huge number of houses used solely for this purpose, and a lot of these houses are 2 beds that would make great homes for couples or families to occupy permanently. Instead they sit empty most of the time, while residents are left with the option of trying to buy (not affordable for many) or trying to find something in the tiny pool of private rentals available.

I don't understand why people can't just use hotels/B&Bs etc. They would be contributing to the local economy by doing so, and creating employment.

@Graphista btw i left school at 16 with absolutely no qualifications and no family support. I now own 2 homes.

When did you do all that @JustoldLondonme?

@VinylDetective over the last 31 yrs. I am 49 now.

@VinylDetective i bought my first property when i was 23 .

Precisely. It would be impossible now unless you lived in a very cheap part of the country as you obviously realise as you’re investing for your children. To hell with the children in the place you’ve bought your second home.

@VinylDetective what? My properties all in north London. I am born and bred Londoner. Nothing handed to me on plate.

My recent second home in IOW.

I have worked like a dog to he able to buy a second hone on the IOW. I worked liked a dog to buy my first house. All my houses in London.

@VinylDetective my children still in London. We have a well earned second holiday home. Deal with it!

@VinylDetective we contribute greatly to the economy on the IOW.

@VinylDetective "Precisely. It would be impossible now unless you lived in a very cheap part of the country "

No! Just needs determined hard work and responsible family planning.

I don't suggest that you haven't worked your socks off. You must have done and I compliment your achievement. But you must have thought hard about where your efforts would have brought the best rewards too. There are lots of people who think they ought to make the world a better place, and I can salute them too. I hope Graphista will smile when I suggest that there are pragmatists and idealists. I am pragmatic and utilitarian, in the sense that I don't believe in perfection, and that the least worst outcome is perhaps the best that can be achieved. I would agree with her that for the 5th or 6th wealthiest country in the world, we are shamed by the quality of education and training we offer to young people whose skills are hands on and the lack of decent housing for people who want to care or need a hand up. Ultimately those failures impoverish us all, but the balance between helping people to achieve and allowing opportunists to profiteer off crime and depency is very murky water. And I don't think we have it right.

[quote JustoldLondonme]@VinylDetective "Precisely. It would be impossible now unless you lived in a very cheap part of the country "

No! Just needs determined hard work and responsible family planning. [/quote]
Nonsense. No way could you do that in London any more. You’re deluded.

@VinylDetective you can. My 23 yr niece is now working in London and carving a career for herself and currently in the process of buying a small flat for herself , having been saving for a deposit since she was 16.

It can be done.

@VinylDetective just because you can not do it, does not mean others can't!

I don't want to be rude about the IoW, but as a place to own a holiday home, it has, in its hinterlands, some serious social problems and bits of it are quite tough. My NDN's son teaches there, and it's no basket of roses.

@XingMing we are aware of that. However, we enjoy the natural beauty of the island and contribute to the island when we are there. We also financially contribute the island monthly by maintaining and paying for the house.

Our holiday home rental clients also contribute to the seasonal earnings on the island,supporting those who make a living by tourism.

@XingMing

I don't want to be rude about the IoW, but as a place to own a holiday home, it has, in its hinterlands, some serious social problems and bits of it are quite tough. My NDN's son teaches there, and it's no basket of roses.

It does, XingMing but they are quite contained. Cornwall and Devon also has areas of challenge. So does Kent and Cumbria. IOW has incredibly beautiful areas of coastline, fantastic restaurants, lots of AONB and stunning beaches.

[quote JustoldLondonme]@VinylDetective just because you can not do it, does not mean others can't! [/quote]
I did it 30 odd years ago on a single salary with a 100% mortgage in a house price crash. I most definitely couldn’t do it now and nor could most people unless they bought somewhere cheap or had parental help.

I meant in a cheap part of the country, that wasn’t clear.

I live in Cornwall. I am well aware of the lovely bits, and all the nice places to eat and hang out; I grew up here. And I love it, but I also know about the 15 year old bumped out of a house into a derelict wet caravan because his younger siblings required more room and he was the biggest. Poverty doesn't just exist in cities, and that lad, who was clever and should have gone to uni to read history (which was his interest) was, the last time I saw him, filling a shelf in Tesco. He was so angry with life that he wouldn't say hello. He's eaten meals with us as a friend but now he thinks that was charity It wasn't.

We need to change the law so that council housing can not be bought. At the minute there is no incentive for councils to build homes- they become available to be bought by people who have lived in council housing for - is it 3? - years at highly discounted prices. The money from the sales can not be invested in building council housing.
We are obsessed with owning property. Unless you live somewhere like London and bought years ago, you don't make huge amounts.My cousin- much older than me- has a house he bought for £200,000 in 1998. He reckons he paid about £330,000 back over the 20 years of the mortgage. It has had 2 new kitchens - and a kitchen extension, utility room and downstairs loo created and two new bathroom re-fits, double glazing and replacement double glazing, the drive re-paved, re-wired, a new roof, damp treated, two boilers. He has paid for all the floorboards to be stripped, fireplaces restored, years of decoration, fitted wardrobes etc. It is now worth £500,000 and he owns it outright. It must have cost him almost that. He hasn't made a fortune from it and the responsibility for maintaining it has been entirely his.
I am not saying he hasn't made anything - he is now rent free and he can sell it (it is too big for him now). But he will be getting back money he has spent, not anything more. If it was up here in the north-east it may not have increased that much in price and he could actually have spent more than he would get back.
My PIL are the same.
We need to build affordable, decent council housing that remans as affordable decent council housing so people do not feel pressure to saddle themselves with 25 years of debt.

@Hawkins001

Looking at the overall map of the UK, the land is there, provided it can be purchased, however it could be a multitude of factors, such as availability, the selling prices of the developers, the buy to let, then it's also people's budgeting skills, ect all these and probably other factors too.

And just where do you expect food to be grown? The UK isn't one big building plot, the countryside isn't wasteland.

I just mourn the promise. That lad could have and might still be a success; I hope so for him, but it's equally possible that by now, he's impregnated a girl in the same situation as him and that they are exploring the next generation of deep intergenerational poverty. The waste of ability is scandalous.

@VinylDetective i am sorry you are in that position. Tough times in the 80's.

I wish you all the very best for xmas and the new yr @VinylDetective . x

Second homes and buy-to-let are a nightmare and have destroyed the housing market for first time buyers and anyone who isn't born into money. I hate them and there's no justification for it.

Of course, it’s been reported the detrimental impact it has on places with large numbers of second homes

Stamp duty should be higher and there should be limitations on how many second homes are allowed in an area