What disincentives could discourage people from buying second homes?

[Unabletosleep]

What disincentives would work to stop people buying second homes?

Inspired by a different thread. It seems a number of people share my abhorrent of second homes.

I have seen the place I grew up turned into a ghost village by selfish idiots buying second homes. Now there is no local shop, no local school, no doctors surgery, no pub, no busses nothing. There were not enough people using them consistently for them to make money.

So what would make people stop killing local communities. Financial penalties I guess but how high? Wales has introduced a 100% local tax increase on second homes but it doesn't seem to be enough.

Originally it was allowing someone to sleep on an airbed in your house which is why it's called airbed and breakfast. But it's changed a lot now, you need to meet fire safety regulations and have liability insurance, etc.

AirBnB are the worst thing ever to happen.
People managed holidays before they existed.

Many of the Airbnbs/ holiday lets I have stayed at are on farms or been built on someone’s property. I don’t do camping/glamping.

Sorry meant to add, doing it this way, it’s a tax for every property unless you can prove you don’t have to pay it, puts the burden on the people who own the property to prove they are exempt, not the council trying to identify people to charge.

It would be unpopular though.

Yep. Airbnb’s are just basically businesses now.

But holiday homes for let have existed for decades if not more. These same holiday homes are now on multiple platforms including Airbnb. On my next holiday I will be spending 2 weeks in different locations. I is a special build home as an extension to someone’s house. This is Airbnb. The other is an apartment in a stately home. This is Sykes.

How many of you have never used an Airb&b or holiday let, in this country or elsewhere? That makes you all hypocrites, no?

My kids use them lots for weekends away. Hotels are horribly expensive, and not always practical.

Are you all content to lose that option for your holidays?

Yes and no. Yes to envy, but not to being the same. Putting someone in a private school doesn't increase the prices of the local comprehensive.

I'm from Brighton originally and the prices were affordable for years. Then it became massively popular, very quicky and tons of people bought 2nd homes there and it's one of the most expensive places to live in the UK now. Locals cannot afford these homes, 400k for a flat, 500k for a small terrace, 750k plus for a detached. I can see why people get annoyed. Stopping people though is very difficult and not sue the answer. People have had second homes for years.

As stated I have seen myself the damage second homes do. There are a small number of places that maybe it doesn't cause as much harm. However second homes are, to me, morally abhorrent and it seems many agree with me.

You want to put your interests first, that is your perogative. Others are concerned about the way people's actions affect others.

There’s different types of second homes though.
My friends parents bought a flat in a seaside down, her parents and her and her siblings all used it.
Within a few years she was living in it whilst buying a permanent home there, her sister then did the same. Her mum then moved in there and sold the family home.
It was always her parents plan to eventually move there permanently and instead they all moved there as they had enjoyed spending time there so much.

Am stunned that you consider all second home owners abhorrent, frankly. We own a second home in London. Dh lives there 3-5 days a week- in order to work, as the post covid train schedule meant his commute increased to 90mins both end of the day, which on top of 10-14hr days was killing him. Our DD also lives there term-time as she is at uni, is AUDHD, disabled and on PIP. It was cheaper to pay a mortgage on a flat that it was to pay weekday hotel accommodation for DH and 10months uni rent for her without the support and adaptations we are able to give her in the second home. I use it in the holidays and DS will likely live there with his first post uni job. Ie we have 4 family member and 2 dogs living fu time across two properties. We already pay two lots of council tax, paid the higher second stamp duty, and because it enables DH to earn an income that results in a six figure income tax bill we feel we pay enough taxes, thank you.

Most people put their family first.

And this is why any attempt to stop part of Cornwall and Devon turning into just pretty holiday parks, not livable communities will fail, because people feel it’s just politics of envy to say when you go over a certain % of a town/village are predominantly empty holiday homes or air bnbs, the community crumbles and that’s a bad thing for the county overall.

Having it as a big tax on holiday homes would at least force people to decide before they buy a 2nd home, will they be prepared to pay to compensate the area for being part of its destruction?

(there was a story recently about the buses to Mousehole. the bus company can’t justify running buses through the village all year round because there’s not enough people using it to make it work outside of the summer season. The village is served by a big bus that goes to the main road at the top of the hill outside the village, but it can’t fit into the small village roads, and the minibus wasn’t worth it financially all year round. So older people now have to walk up the hill out of the village to catch a bus to the next big town. Which they need to go to as most of the facilities in the town have closed because there’s not enough permanent residents to keep them open.)

It was literally how AirBnB started. Along with people letting their own homes while they were staying there. The film The Holiday is almost exactly about this. It’s not that bonkers…

Thanks. I could afford second home, I choose not to.

I could afford private school, I choose not to.

People who use their money to pretend that they somehow matter more are damaging the country

I pay a lot of tax and that is RIGHT. I should pay tax because I can.

Personally I would shut all private schools because putting those children in the state system creates interested parents who will help to improve their local schools.

I would happily ban second homes, I just think it would be a pain to police.

I would close the huge number of tax loop holes that others take advantage of.

"From everyone who has been given much, much will be required." People are rather quick to forget that part of the social contract when they are at the top.

I think as your name says ‘it could be you ´misunderstanding.No need to police anything.It’s like swapping your house for holidays IF YOU WANT TO.😂

So if it's not enforced it doesn't solve anything thing does it?

You don't get to dictate where people choose to send their children to school.

You don't want to privately educate your kids, that's fine.

You don't get to enforce your views on other people's children.

I don’t see how it would?

And also, the price they could sell to a person who wanted to live there wouldn’t be a discount. If anything it would just be not selling at an inflated price to someone with money to burn.

The issue is not the home owners themselves but the system that allows it. Many of the 'selfish idiots' are wealthy and bring a lot of money to the community when they are there. They eat in restaurants, buy local products and employ people to clean their houses. Its better than if they bought overseas and spent their money in another economy. The problem is the lack of housing for locals. That surely has to come from a central government policy. I agree a classification system for houses as primary or secondary use with different regulations. A limit of secondary homes per town would help, based on a percentage maybe. A rule that people who have local connections who want a second home are prioritised over random people. I also think a different tax bracket for builders or developers who build for locals rather than second home owners. Like a new build would be zoned before the construction began so all houses here can only be sold to locals for primary residence even on resale, and there is a tax incentive to build this.

Someone told me I was just envious. I'm not. I'm an ethical liberal socialist. I believe society works best when people help each other but that the government is responsible for enforcing that.

Oh goodness I give up.

People who use their money to pretend that they somehow matter more are damaging the country

Sums up where we’ve got to as a society I think.

Nobody should have told you that you were envious, that's rude.

But you can't (and shouldn't) be able to decide how others choose to educate their children.

I think that's for the best.