Is having a second home in this country ever justifiable?

[Zog]

Given the amount of houses that we are told needs to be built to keep up with demand? Are they a luxury that is becoming unsustainable, like cheap air travel?

How very imperialistic of her, icod.

She'd have done the East India Company proud!

Yes, all your local yokels! Rich Londoners know what is best for you.

no I am not joking

tired old cattle barns are not usually unique heritage

knock them down and build cheaper housing. And I am sure architects could put their heads together and design fantastic cheaper built houses if they weren't being paid megabucks by London refuseniks trying to make some old apple shed look like Babington House.

Yes, but Enid, tacky pre-fabs just don't have that 'wow' factor, those character features, that eau d'animal that disused bothies, barns and abattoirs have.

yes and obviously having poor people near your barn might lower its resale value

but the average builder never builds fantastic new cheap houses though does he? They tend to build characterless boxes with 'heritage' details tacked on the outside. I'd love a beautiful modern house but unless you can afford an architect they never are beautiful modern houses. Just more crappy little rabbit hutches ....with 3 bathrooms to make them seem better.

Perhaps everybody's home should just be knocked down, and replaced by cheap cardboard shacks?

Then all property developers/investors should be taken out and publicly hanged?

Exactly, Enid! Can't have that. I mean, those village urchins might touch the children. Or look at them funny.

Although it's been suggested that a better alternative might be to parcel the countryside into fiefdoms a la days of yore, and then offer the serfs tied accommodation on the ol' estate.

Message withdrawn

agree entirely with sobernow.

nadine, would pentapeptides rejuvenate run down property?

original features are over-rated.

aint that the truth

I've not been in a single dwelling packed with 'character' and original features that wasn't freezing arse cold all winter.

No, thanks. I'll take triple glazing and UPVC, too.

So, just to clarify - am I allowed a second home abroad and not in this country? Is that somehow morally more defensible

(ROFL - as if I give a flying feck)

No, HMC, in ANY case, by renovating your second home, you are doing everyone a favour.

Message withdrawn

I remember being in a history museum in the Western US. And there was an exhibit on Indian life, and how they had no concept of land ownership b/c you couldn't own Mother Earth.

And there was a quote from an Indian man. He said, 'White man come and build big house, like big cage.'

I want to know where HMC's second home is too. [nosey emoticon]

Lets hope it isn't in Albania or somewhere suitably up and coming

Sorry to disappoint - we haven't got a 2nd home yet. Are considering Cornwall

What I said about the French not wanting to live in isolated villages which then die out and the English have bought up is true. They can't understand our eccentricity and things we have about property. Presumably no one objects to my buying an island which has no one on it and is not taking homes from anyone and instead brings income to its region.

Xenia, could you leave this thread please because I don;t have the willpower to stay away?

I do object to people buying islands, yes. Sigh. Just now, I wish I didn't.

and have you done some kind of survey with French people to know their thoughts so well on this issue?

No, just some French villages in some areas that were reported in the British press.

Surely if you want people to preserve rainforest etc it's a good thing if we buy it up like on my island to preserve it. One british man bought I think 1m acres of the Amazon. If you think private ownership generally does a better job of land management and takes a longer term view than Governments (which I do) then the more land in private hands the better.