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.

Don't most second home buyers let them out to tourists when they're not there?

I feel like something needs to be done so that there is genuinely affordable housing for people who live and work here year round. I'm not sure what. Maybe some sort of zoning. Not sure.

But I think the Cornish (and anyone) are allowed to have a good old moan about things from time to time - part of the joys of living somewhere that you get to bitch about visitors or other problems it may have, doesn't mean you can't also accept it and make the best of it.

There is also a huge divide that in terms of 2nd home owners they tend to be older having paid off the mortgage on their first house & now want an investment whereas young people can't even buy one home.
Housing shouldn't be an investment, interest rates need to rise to make saving more favourable but then that will also create problems.

When I went on holiday there I very much got the impression from locals that tourists were resented, even from those who worked in tourist businesses. More than once, sea front shops tried to refuse change, as a 'contribution'. This was on top of already extremely inflated prices. If this is how local in Cornwall are going to be, then please at least be up front about it!

The trouble with too many 2nd homes that eventually it will destroy the environment that attracted you in the first place.

I'd like to see the stats of long-term rented properties converted to holiday homes. I used to love that central Edinburgh was so residential but now it has a massive concentration of student/Airbnb flats & ouses.

The major difference between long-term rentals & short-term lets is that the actual housing stock available is reduced.

@Tealightsandd yep!

@Ladydayblues1

Second home owners are a different breed from tourists.

Tourists come and go, they put money into the community. Second home owners can leave properties empty for months on end, it drains the life out of a community. You can end up like a ghost town in certain areas with houses dark and empty for most of the year. Also they stop and start building work which is disruptive to those living there. Scaffolding can be left up for months on end which impacts neighbours and walkways. Because they are not always here to monitor work it can attract rogue builders who leave the property in a terrible state and impacts those around them. I could go on and on, but when you get large groupings of second homes it does impact the full time community in multiple ways.

This.

Second home owners kill villages off. Property prices pushed up but properties stand empty for the majority of the year. Not enough children for the smaller schools, the shops die, the pubs close. Take a walk around some of the villages in Devon and Cornwall in Autumn/winter and you will see what I mean

Tourists are a different matter altogether.

I’ll start by saying I’m not a second home owner.

I can see the problems caused in communities by loads of empty houses.

However, many 2nd home owners live in small, expensive accommodation in London and slave their guts out with crap quality of life. Escaping to the holiday home, which is presumably a lot more spacious, with cleaner air etc is what they live for. I do know someone in this position, they own 2 homes, want to live in the nice place but can’t leave London due to career. She absolutely hates London but is trapped there.

@Tealightsandd

Instead, the 2nd homers load up their cars before leaving London

Yeah they're all from London.... Except, no they're not - and the same problem has been happening to Londoners for years. But no cares about London families and communities being destroyed.

You are missing the point. Second homers deprive rural communities of amenities that are very much needed. Shops, schools, transport. If you live in a village 8 miles from the nearest town & don't drive, what do you do in that situation? How do you shop? How do you travel? Where do your kids go to school? Hardly likely to happen to people living in London, is it? And yes, as someone who lives in Norfolk, I can assure you it mostly is Londoners who have damaged our villages as communities. I'm not saying London communities don't have issues with ridiculous house prices & costs of living. What I am saying is Norfolk, like Cornwall, has been disproportionately affected because of our supposed tranquility & isolation, which is what most 2nd homers look for.

I have to say that after last year I have taken Cornwall off my holiday list permanently. My in-laws used to live in Devon so we travelled down to the West Country a lot when the kids were young but I'm afraid that the venom and rudeness coming up from Devon and Cornwall over the last year or so has persuaded me that I can quite happily live the rest of my life without ever going back there again.

And, for what it's worth, we lived in the South of England (Hampshire) and my children can't afford to buy here either. That doesn't mean I go onto social media complaining about the people who have bought the houses where I live!

This thread is one of the saddest threads I’ve read In a while and makes me grateful I don’t go on holiday to Devon or Cornwall. It’s like the people from there feel they own the place and no outsiders welcome. It’s thanks to hotels and people renting out holiday homes that tourists come and money is made. I spend my time I. Wales and the lakes and I’ve never had a problem. My family are also currently buying a holiday home in the lakes which will bring tourists and money in. Won’t be left for weeks at a time and won’t damage anything. If a local wanted to buy it they could have but they didn’t want to buy a doer upper so we have it. You don’t own your area it’s a free country.

@tecatea. I think the environment has already been destroyed in many places. Cornwall is hugely overrated. Beautiful landscape but inflated prices, unfriendly locals, annoying public school kids and "ya" Londoners. And it rains a lot. Went there many years ago for a week in July and sat in a caravan looking out at the rain for most of the week....we were all pleased to get home! Haven't been back since but I'm sure we haven't been missed .

@hibbledibble. I agree. Greater clarity from locals as to whether tourists are welcome or not would be useful. There are plenty of other nice places to visit, both in the UK and (in normal times) abroad.

Still think a second-home tax would be good... the money could go towards building affordable local housing. You take a house away from local people, you should contribute towards building another one.

Hate second homes, and I wanted to respond to a question upthread. Someone asked why locals do not call out other locals for selling their properties to the highest bidder - often it is because the owner has died. Cornwall proportionally has a high percentage of older people compared with the England average, and many people retire there.

Secondly, there are not many genuine owner occupier locals left living in the prettier coastal areas that appeal to second home owners. The sales by locals to incomers already happened years ago.

@sadeyedladyofthelowlandsea
Yeah in London, Londoners don't lose a shop or a school... Shame they can't use those facilities - having been priced away from their community (Cornish aren't the only ones with families and communities). They're either forced to live as outsiders somewhere else (often resented by insular locals) or outright homeless.

Btw how do you know these people you complain about are all Londoners? You check every incomers birth certificate? Many many people come to London from all over the UK (Cornwall, Norfolk, and Devon included). When they leave or buy a second home, they are people from Norfolk or Cornwall or Devon or wherever leaving London.

@99victoria. Hampshire has it all. Centrally located, beautiful beaches, picturesque towns and villages, great country parks, New Forest. No need to leave!

If the locals become too rude or hostile then people will go elsewhere and that will be sad for the ones trying to make a living from hospitality
who need the tourists to make money.
We had a nice holiday there in 08 , but it poured down all week and it wasn't that cheap finding things to do or go and see. I wouldn't want a second home there personally but I can see why people do love it.

The main problems that young people face in Cornwall is a lack of a good range of decently paid jobs. It also doesn't help that many of our county councillors are utterly useless.

I have lived here for over 20 years, and used to holiday in Trebetherick long before that as my family had a holiday home there! Trebetherick is interesting as it is now a popular wealthy middle class holiday destination, but it certainly wasn't in the 60s and 70s.

It really sprang up as a holiday home village in the late 19th century - when trains made it possible to come so far for a holiday. Before the holiday homes were built there wasn't really anything here!

To be honest I can't see the difference between holiday cottages and second homes - both mean there are insufficient residents to support vital local services and they will both be empty most of the year. If anything second homes are more likely to be used more I would have thought - many people come down to check on things, or come last minute because of a good weather forecast.

Most second homes of people I know were once family homes, parents have died and the children have kept it and share it with brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews for holidays and so on. Many are used for regular family gatherings, and are rented out for as many weeks a years as possible - usually to the same regular trusted renters.

People I know who have holiday cottages have usually converted outbuildings and use the rent to supplement income (although the returns are pretty slim for the amount of work).

Tourists are a vital part of the economy, and you have to adapt to make a living out of it. A friend of mine has a very successful business putting air conditioning into second homes because the fact they are closed up for so long causes all sorts of problems. People can also earn quite good money by offering concierge services.

It is sad to see the life sucked out of some places by second homes - Padstow and Port Issac were very different places when I was young, and it is a problem, but what would replace this activity in economic terms?

A tiny minority of visitors behave very badly, but otherwise they are welcome as far as I am concerned.

"Who's selling these Cornish houses to out of towners? Locals presumably? Do these locals selling up to non locals admit what they are doing at the time? Is it a thing that they are discouraged from doing by the other locals? Do they all just moan about the situation to themselves and hate on the buyers?"

Imagine if the ad said 'on sale to locals only'.
I know people who've done that, but it can't be said outright.

How do you shop? How do you travel? Where do your kids go to school? Hardly likely to happen to people living in London, is it?

This absolutely happens in London, long term locals can't always afford the swanky new delis & coffee shops. London also needs teachers & nurses & police who can afford to live in London.

@CharlotteRose90

This thread is one of the saddest threads I’ve read In a while and makes me grateful I don’t go on holiday to Devon or Cornwall. It’s like the people from there feel they own the place and no outsiders welcome. It’s thanks to hotels and people renting out holiday homes that tourists come and money is made. I spend my time I. Wales and the lakes and I’ve never had a problem. My family are also currently buying a holiday home in the lakes which will bring tourists and money in. Won’t be left for weeks at a time and won’t damage anything. If a local wanted to buy it they could have but they didn’t want to buy a doer upper so we have it. You don’t own your area it’s a free country.

Weird that your take away isn’t this, rather than the sadness of entire villages empty and local amenities closed and boarded up due to selfish greed.

The Lakes and Wales have the same problems as Cornwall you know.
Stop acting like you are some kind of saviour to struggling communities. It’s embarrassing.

*is this

I would support a change the planning system such that a home that is not a permanent primary residence should have to apply for change of use to a business category specific to holiday lets and be liable for business rates set at a level to make it financially non viable unless the property is rented out to tourists at the market rate for most of the year. It would also align business rates more closely with hotels and B&Bs.

If planning permission is not granted, it needs to be permanently lived in (with evidence) or sold. There should also be a tax for empty homes.

People in Cornwall are not special. Housing issues (including second homes) are a problem many parts of the London more than anywhere.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/homeless-london-children-rough-sleepers-city-b1772337.html

We were looking to relocate to Cornwall a few years ago, to live, not as a second home. We were told by a local we would not be welcome. Our relocation was for a job.

We didn’t move in the end!