If you own a second home how do you get treated by locals?

[Poiul]

Aware of the feelings towards second home owners on mumsnet. Does that contempt translate into real life is my question.

It's not only first time buyers that need homes. All people need homes.

People upsize, and people upsize into their properties and somewhere along that chain a first time buyer is able to buy or a first time renter to leave home - or a family living in a B&B to get a home.

...but you know that. So it must suit your purpose to pretend that because a first time buyer can't afford to buy the second home/holiday home/air b&b that they are morally fine and doing no harm. Each home used for these purposes is a home lost to residential property increasing the pressure on housing.

It is complete madness that individuals and families are living in b&bs, sofa surfing and camping while houses lie empty or are used by holiday makers. We should get the holiday makers back into hotels and purpose built holiday accommodation and keep residential property for permanent residents.

Thanks for these helpful comments 🤣🤣🤣

The fact that people are living in b&bs and sofa surfing is a totally separate issue. The homes released from second home ownership, unless they're buy to lets wont help these people. Only building social housing will help here.

Totally separate from loads of homes being unoccupied - how so?

I don't own a second home, but some family members considered buying a second home at one point, but their main concern was the moral one of contributing negatively to housing issues for the local people (reduced housing availability, pricing local people out etc) and the effect on the local community when there are houses that are empty a fair amount of the year.

So they ended up buying a static caravan on a nearby site instead. I've visited it, it's great, comfy not at all like the caravans I remember from childhood holidays, and feels more like a chalet or a lodge. And best of all you're not negatively impacting on local housing issues.

000EverybodyLovesTheSunshine000
Hey guess what? We're being priced out of where we grew up in "that London" too. It's not just in Cornwall you know 🙄

"Absolutely. Generations of Londoners here, in a non wealthy area now priced out. One "trend" I'm seeing is buying a house in Norfolk or Kent to supplement their income so people can pay the rent on their multi generational household and have somewhere to escape to when they can. Huge amounts of W London are empty boarded up or falling in due to second home owners from abroad. Londoners are not evil housing is ridiculous everywhere"

Exactly @QueenofFox! Sometimes it's people from elsewhere in the country (The Shires) moving here to work in the city or the media etc who are pricing us out. Point being it's not just in Devon and Cornwall where this happens!

@000EverybodyLovesTheSunshine000

Average house price as a multiple of average salary:

UK overall i8.3
London 14
South Hams 12
Cornwall 10

Because those sofa surfing and living in B&Bs are not going to benefit from a house in Cornwall being put on the market for sale to the residents of Cornwall, instead of it being a holiday home. People who are in this situation usually have no spare cash, and are not in a position to buy. The council aren’t buying homes for social housing - these are being currently provided via existing council homes, or new builds, where a certain percentage are set aside for social housing.

Getting rid of holiday homes isn’t going to solve the housing crisis as they are still out of the reach for most people.
What you need to solve is the job opportunities in tourist areas and wages. And if you drive tourists away it’s not going to create other jobs/industries. Some of these areas did have traditional industries that have died and been replaced with tourism. So you free those homes up and they are bought by retirees or people who work from home, there’s no way to stop that.
I live in a part of the country where there are few opportunities for young people, so they will move to cities like London and displace locals.

I do stay in holiday homes, staying in hotels doesn’t work for us. I’d be happy to stay in purpose built flats for tourists no issue.

Someone mentioned Abersoch. Houses on the market just now are way out of the reach of all but the seriously wealthy. We need social housing here

Exactly this. Where is the line in a housing crisis?

What if the wealthy decided they wanted to buy almost all the food driving up the price of the remaining food, sparse as it is? I mean, why not? It's their money, they can do what they like, right?

@Caerulea

"Exactly this. Where is the line in a housing crisis?"

Agreed and you can add in that everyone that owns a home or several then protests against the building of anymore houses.

Some tourism is useful but the benefits of having the industry are usually overstated. Jobs in tourism are often poor quality - seasonal and low paid.

Businesses where I am recruit skilled staff from out of the area who are keen to live here but candidates often end up turning the job down because there is no suitable housing within a sensible commuting distance.

If some of the holiday homes in my area reverted to permanent housing, either to buy or long let, it absolutely would help the more desirable kinds of businesses that offer good quality employment.