To be conflicted by the crackdown on 2nd homes

[chairz]

I complete understand the problems they cause & do agree with a higher levy but thenI have used holiday cottages lots of times in the past & plan to in the future.

People pay full council tax on second homes.

There are so many houses available to buy on RightMove. If locals could afford to buy them surely they would. The reason locals can't buy them is because they can't afford deposit and mortgage payments.

Most holiday homes are quite expensive too. Most out of reach of first time buyers, who maybe want a 2 bed starter home.

In my view it is pure jealousy by those who have not got one.

I have a 7 bedroom house in France near to coast and don't let it out but do allow family, friends and my cleaner borrow it when it is vacant.

We are not old, and none of our homes is the sort that would be bought by a first time buyer, or is in a place with a housing shortage.

Have you ever heard of such things as hotels, bed and breakfasts, tents, caravans, camper vans, or day trips?

I wonder if this will result in a drop in house places in these popular holiday areas? With increasing flexible working, working at home, aren't people considering moving out of the cities into a nicer environment? How will it be if ex holiday lets come on the market at a price the "locals" can't afford and get purchased as the only home of someone from say Manchester?

This is a very fair point. Every second home owner originally bought it from somebody, who bought it from somebody.... and the first person to sell it was quite probably a local.

If you deliberately limit your potential market, of course you are going to effectively lower the value of what you're selling - especially if many of those whom you exclude are going to be the wealthier ones.

If you truly believe in enabling locals to afford houses, you need to be willing to take a massive hit on your selling price. If you don't do that and seek the top market price achievable, you're in no position to complain.

I would have thought that the biggest problem was people who leave their second homes empty most of the year and not those who rent them out to holidaymakers bringing money into the local economy - and likely to spend considerably more as they're on holiday. It seems quite foolish to effectively tell the rich that the local economy doesn't want all of that extra trade and would prefer to see the house left empty for months on end.

Also, what is so magic about hotels? A massive hotel could be torn down and replaced with goodness knows how many affordable homes for locals, if we're serious about it.

I think we have to make the decision as to whether we do want people who live further than a day-trip away to visit beautiful places or not. Tourism is a very valid industry, so I don't understand why so many have a downer on it and see it as a great evil.

It is a privilege to live somewhere beautiful and I'm not convinced that just having grown up somewhere confers the right to live there in perpetuity and for others to be excluded or strictly vetted before they're allowed in. It just makes me think of all the people saying "We can't take any more immigrants in, we're full, they should stay in their own country", who just conveniently happen to have been born in the UK and not in Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Somalia.

FemmeNatal please my post .. 2 above this one.
Seeing the affects of second home ownwership where I live.. how do you feel about its affects.

And you are wrong about rentals being available. Many young people in our village cannot find rentals. We have a limit in new builds here also. If it was your dc wouldnt yiu care?

Yes, that is ethical.

You can not ask the state to take the emotional circumstances leading to second home ownership into account. You are in possession of an asset, as with any inheritance there are decisions to be made.

sorry for the loss of your father - the emotional side of bereavement is very hard to manage alongside the practical. It has always been thus.

By awful people, do you mean the locals who are priced out if their own villages and towns?

Well yes, of course we do, as is our right. We worked, we earned money, and we spent it on buying them.

@FemmeNatal there is 3 properties available on rightmove in a 25 mile radius of where I live within my price bracket.

I have cancer I need to be near the hospital I am being treated at. I am on a clinical trial and cannot move hospitals.

It is not unpleasant to state my opinion on your complete and utter selfishness and disregard for other people.
What is unpleasant is not being able to sleep at night wondering when the bailiffs are coming to evict me.
It's unpleasant not knowing whether I will have a roof over my head in a months time.
It's unpleasant not knowing whether I will be able to finish my treatment because I'm living on the streets and unable to have chemotherapy.
And it's unpleasant not knowing if that will affect my prognosis and potentially cause my death.

Can I clean your house and stay in your chateau?😊

We’ve stopped renting ours out now, and just leave them for our own use. It doesn’t seem to have stopped some awful people still complaining about it though.

Isn't that even worse? So when the house is empty, no one is supporting the local economy.

Everything in my city on right move

87 two bedrooms minimum £650 maximum £3,337

30 three bedrooms minimum £800 maximum £1,500

21 are four bedrooms minimum of £895 maximum £1,900

6 five bedrooms minimum £1,400 maximum £1,950

everything else is one beds, rooms to rent or house shares. Most of these stipulate no pets, working professionals only and no benefits. A lot of the fours and fives stipulates no children either.

That sounds far too sensible to ever become policy, sadly.

But I agree. There is nothing inherent about holiday lets that makes them incompatible with sustainable local communities. The issue is the sheer number of them. When I was a child we stayed in holiday cottages all over the UK, and the sign of a 'tourist town' was having a newsagent that sold a few postcards.

This is a meaningless response. I thought you saw no problem with you owning four homes? Why try to minimise the harm you are doing by saying they are not first homes? All multiple home ownership causes issues in the market as a whole.

I inherited a house but its not in a good enough state to rent out, we are gradually gradually doing it up and will move there, its classed as a second home, we pay full council tax, all the utility bills, maintain it as best we can and didnt get any covid payment or council tax rebate.

Of course it is ethical to provide rental accommodation where it is needed, particularly to people who aren't in a position to buy. So long as it is lived in the majority of the time I really don't see a problem.

Good luck getting it fixed up.

I have a BTL (previous home/accidental landlord) and in 7 years it has been empty for 1 week). My first tenants moved in a week before we completed on our current house which we rented as an Airbnb for the week as that was what the previous owner had been using it for since moving out 6 months earlier. Currently, impatiently, waiting for tenants to get into a position to buy it off me (which they want to but their circumstances changed).

So if we don’t live in a beautiful area we should just put up with it all year round and never even get to have a week in a beautiful area so that a few more people get to live there all year round?
I’ve never got the obsession with locals getting to have cheaper housing where they were brought up. I have finally been able to move back to an area I was brought up. I lived in a few cheaper areas before this and gradually worked up to it. I didn’t deserve to get it handed to me just because I had the good fortune to live there as a child anymore than anyone else.

But in the overall argument, that's just as bad if not worse depending on your occupancy rate? At least a holiday home thats regularly full contributes to the local economy. Apologies if you're there a significant amount of time though, that's obviously different.

On the days I dream of winning the lottery I've always thought about somewhere in North Yorkshire/Northumberland as a second home but I'm genuinely not sure now, especially when you see how little property is owned by locals and the effect that has.

Is that worse? If they are rented out then people are using local cafes, shops and places reliant on the tourist trade. A second home just empty for half the year or more is even worse for the local area. You literally are just taking a house for greedy reasons and not giving anything back.

We were renting ours out fir £3,500 per month. The tenants left it in such a state that it cost a year’s rent to return to a good condition.

If you want to blame anyone for us now using it when we visit my in-laws, then blame them.

In Greece the government pays seasonal workers in the 'off' season. Tourism is a big employer in some communities so if tourists don't come locals won't be able to live there anyway as no employment. It isnt as simple as banning holiday lets.

I'd add purpose built holiday lodges/cabins to this list, which usually have kitchens etc., for self catering trips, but are not family homes that people could live in long term.

Yes ,you have right to buy the second homes.. but what about the morality of it ? Does it not bother you. Anyone with an ounce of intelligence can see what is wrong morally and practically. Why have a second home in an area that in effect you dont actuallt seem to care about.

Shamefull .

Have you ever heard of such things as hotels, bed and breakfasts, tents, caravans, camper vans, or day trips?

Anybody running a B&B will obviously be occupying a house that is much bigger than they need for themselves/their family. If they moved to somewhere smaller that's more appropriate for their own requirements, they could free up a desperately-needed home for a bigger family who might otherwise struggle to find anywhere suitable. Hotels could also be broken up and converted into affordable flats for locals, instead of letting loads of outsiders commandeer them as effective rolling second homes. This isn't really any different on a micro scale.

You also get plenty of rural communities complaining about the gridlock caused by incomers bringing caravans and massive motorhomes.

I know there are challenges that need to be looked into, but we do need to decide whether we actually want tourism or we don't. And if touristy places decide that they do want visitors, but only on their own terms, they may find that the tourists lose interest and don't come anyway.

We are not old, and none of our homes is the sort that would be bought by a first time buyer, or is in a place with a housing shortage.

That doesn't answer my question though. However I thought you said you had a flat in London!