If you're from Cornwall, how do you personally feel about tourists and second home owners?

[Beerlovingwalker]

Genuinely curious really, as an outsider that loves Cornwall.

On the one hand, it must be nice to know that so many people love the beauty of your county and I'm sure it's nice to share it. However, it also must be difficult to adjust from living fairly quietly in the Autumn/winter months, to suddenly have to share your space with so many million tourists and second home owners in the summer.

I'm on the Devon and Cornwall border. Dreading the summer as a 'normal one' is busy enough as it is and it takes an age to get to work following caravans and campers. Many locals will avoid the beaches and tourist places till it calms down. More should be done to limit second homes - it can kill small villages.

People often mention second home buyers pushing up property prices. Is it specifically second home buyers? Is the impact the same if someone from outside buys a house and moves to the area? In terms of property prices I mean. Is it because often people from outside will have bigger budgets?

@takemetomiami

The problem is, lots of people (like me) don't want to stay on a holiday park full of kids, or in an hotel with no cooking facilities. I like to stay in a self catering cottage and wouldn't be able to do that without people buying them. I'm not sure what the answer is, as we have thought about buying a holiday home before but been put off by the idea of taking homes away from the locals/being unwelcome, but we like staying in them.....

@takemetomiami why should your 'want' of a weeks holiday trump people like myself being able to afford a roof over our heads?!!

People buy houses in London to live in them

Categorically not true for certain areas of London which have had their hearts hollowed out in a similarly devastating fashion to many Cornish towns and villages.

However, globalisation and "foreign" investment has brought many benefits to London and opportunities for Londoners, which is probably not the case for other areas of the country. Hence the difference in perception and levels of resentment of "outsiders".

Tourism would decrease if there were no holiday homes to let, though... there's no way I'd want to be stuck with small DC in a tiny caravan or hotel room given it seems to rain every time I even so much as set foot in the West Country . I'd rather stay at home!

But maybe a decrease in tourism is a price worth paying for more permanent communities... difficult to know what the right balance would be.

@Macncheeseballs

Dobby- what about locals who cycle?, are they on the receiving end of your anger as well? Sorry devon isn't chilling you out more

@Macncheeseballs why the hell should I chill out when city morons are feeding (and almost killing) my livestock????

And yes I'm sick to the back teeth of recreational cyclists.

Tourists - yay.

Anyone who thinks they needs two homes - boo.

I get so bored of these threads. They never resolve anything. The problem nationally is that housing costs are far too high for average wage levels. Second homers, foreign buyers, Air BnB, private developers, lack of social housing, rise of the gig economy, property as speculative investment, renter insecurity all form part of the problem.

People wouldn't be so desperate to buy if renting wasn't so precarious and expensive, and if house prices didn't keep going up, but once they do everyone wants house prices to go up to make some money.

Even if you got rid of second homers, local people still wouldn't live in some of those houses be used there are so few good jobs available. Without the public sector propping the whole place up Cornwall would be in dire straits.

@Dobbyafreeelf. It shouldn't, clearly, but if tourism is necessary for the local economy then unfortunately you have to give the tourists what they want...or at least enough of it that they don't stop visiting.

I'm so glad I started this thread but also really upset! I know it's "Not just Cornwall"... But in my area it's just one town that is dogged with second homes, not an entire county. I honestly had no idea and I'm being painfully educated. Thank you all.

@Corrag

People often mention second home buyers pushing up property prices. Is it specifically second home buyers? Is the impact the same if someone from outside buys a house and moves to the area? In terms of property prices I mean. Is it because often people from outside will have bigger budgets?

@Corrag yes it does push prices higher but at least they are contributing to the local economy. They generally participate in local life. In my experience people moving to the area are very much welcomed into the community. And there is always a huge sigh of relief when a house is lived in not sat empty for months on end.

@Dobbyafreeelf I guess what it means is that, if people dont like the a accommodation on offer, they would go elsewhere on holiday. This may, or may not, be a problem.

There is also a potential economic issue around who owns tourist accommodation. If tourism is confined to hotels and caravan parks then most of the money goes into the pockets of corporations and be exported from the area. Whereas B&Bs, farm lets etc trickle the money down through more people and it is more likely to stay local.

There is definitely an issue of balance a d the current situation isnt working but I dont think there is a quick fix.

[quote Jellybabiesforbreakfast]@Dobbyafreeelf. It shouldn't, clearly, but if tourism is necessary for the local economy then unfortunately you have to give the tourists what they want...or at least enough of it that they don't stop visiting.[/quote]
@Jellybabiesforbreakfast I think that is entirely debatable actually. Devon in particular had lots of income streams beyond tourism. It is an income stream but by far not the only one.

Tourists - love. They come to admire our beautiful county and provide jobs and wealth. We should be grateful.
Second home owners - cunts.

@AgeLikeWine
Stats here for overseas investment ownership so no, not all owner occupied or even, especially in very central London EVER occupied. I believe the situation is even worse in Westminster and kind of ripples out from there. Those with the power to change it are themselves heavily invested so no change likely.

@ladygindiva

Tourists - love. They come to admire our beautiful county and provide jobs and wealth. We should be grateful. Second home owners - cunts.

What about the tourists who stay in second homes rather than holiday parks or hotels. Are they semi-cunts?

I'm in Devon, in a very popular coastal location, and love seeing tourists enjoying for a few days of the delights that I am lucky enough to have all year round. Love it even more when they leave, though.

But people owning second homes purely to rent them out for holiday lets, means many of us don't have next door neighbours, but instead different groups of people and cars turning up and 'moving in' every so often, doesn't feel nice if you live on a street like that. You get new 'neighbours' all the time, with new irritating habits, noise levels, amounts of cars, parking behaviour...

Sorry, to be specific. A property rented out throughout the season counts as a business, brings trade to the county etc. No issue with owners or patrons of those. The cunty second home owners are those that own a property solely for their own use, and leave it empty for great long periods of the year. Need to make that distinction clear.

Like tourists. Dislike second home owners.

This is why we need much more social housing right across the country. I like Cornwall, been there many times, and there is plenty of space for more homes. You could build 20,000 new social houses and it wouldn't even make a tiny dent on the landscape.

Slightly off topic, but I'd like to see post-covid, post-Brexit Britain embark on a massive housebuilding programme - that's the best way to bring down prices, while also creating jobs and stimulating the economy.

I’m from Cornwall, mostly love tourists, although last year some of their parking was very questionable (do NOT park in front of farm gates because you want to go to the beach, I have to say I told some people off for this, totally unacceptable)

Obviously the housing situation is annoying but I think the council need to intervene and sort it out PLUS all the locals complaining don’t have to sell their houses to the highest bidder, they could sell at a lower price to a lovely local - a friend has brought his first house this way. Usually people just want the money though, so locals do need to consider their own part in the industry.

@Seashor

I’m in Devon. I love the tourists they bring vibrance to the area and bring it alive. Second home owners destroy the area, it’s terribly sad to see.

And lead to developers being allowed to build thousands of identikit houses on greenfield sites, ostensibly to provide affordable housing, but it's not affordable. There are so many houses being built, nobody will want to visit soon; you can't live in a museum, but something needs to be done about the out of control housing development. And one of the ways to do that is to stop second home ownership or make it deeply unattractive.

You could build 20,000 new social houses and it wouldn't even make a tiny dent on the landscape

Hmm it absolutely does make a dent on the landscape. If you are in South Devon soon, look at all the housing development going on around Newton Abbot; there is also a huge new development on the outskirts of Totnes and more housing being built on the hill above Dartmouth (that may be the least offensive of the three as there is already a leisure centre and Sainsburys there but then it just shows that once you give an inch, the developers take a mile).

I saw the sky news item today about the second home owners and young people being priced out buying a place and I thought it would be nice if they did a feature on all young people who can't afford to buy ( although I appreciate that in the West Country it is a problem ) I can imagine it's so frustrating for them but it is a nationwide problem too.
I feel for the young. It's an impossible situation for them.

It must be hard to stomach if you've grown up in the Cornwall area and can't afford to buy a house but then see so many houses sat there in darkness for 90% of the year

I recently watched a documentary on the Cornish fishing industry featuring maybe eight different towns. The fishermen/women don't own houses on the coast, it's almost unheard of. Back in the day St Ives for example would have been dominated by the fishermen/women but not now. Most have to live in land, the lucky ones have managed to buy but a lot rent

One town has stopped outsiders buying houses but it's too late now for the other towns

Do Cornish people have this conversation between themselves though? Are they also calling their own relatives and countrymen 'cunts' when they sell their houses up to second home owners for massive prices?

Is there any local dialog about locals not doing this? Or is all the hostility reserved for those who have bought the house?