Anyone from Cornwall here? Is this as stupid an idea as I think?

[iamloading]

So before I start can I ask that this doesn't become a landlord bashing thread. My partner and I have no pension at all, but met much later in life so both had our own property. We live in mine, and rent out his. This property is our pension.

Our tenants are moving out next month and as my partner grew up in Cornwall we are considering selling the rental and buying a property down there.

We hate the idea of yet another air b&b pricing out the locals. However we would also love to use the property ourselves in an ideal world. We currently rent an air b&b every year for two weeks when we visit - which would seem crazy to do if we had a property there.

A friend who lives in Cornwall mentioned how desperate locals are for sensibly priced rentals, and that we should just put a clause in the contract that for 2 weeks in the summer holidays we get the property to use. She said most locals try to leave in the summer anyway.

I can't imagine that this would appeal to anyone but wondered what you think?

That model used to work really well in Edinburgh with students and festival goers, but I feel Cornwall would be different. You'd be asking people to leave their permanent home.

You simply wouldn’t be able to put a clause like that in an assured shorthold tenancy. Sorry.

The only way you'd be able to do that is if you did it as a student let in one of the university towns.

It wouldnt work

You would be asking tenants, to sign up to a property that is their 'home' but is then used for others to sleep in for 2 weeks, with all their stuff still in it. Under their insurance. What if their child is ill or they are ill and they cant go away. What if they cant afford to go away

Your best bet is to do the landlord thing but rent yourself for your holiday, plenty of people do that, its not unusual

Just pay for the Airbnb for two weeks 😊

I wouldn't want to stay in someone else's hone for two weeks a year. I think you could either use as holiday let and block out certain weeks, or accept you can't use it as a holiday let.

You can't do that, it's shitty to expect anyone to move out of their home for 2 weeks. If the rent was cheap and they were desperate someone might agree to it but it doesn't mean it's ok. What happens if they can't go away when you want to be there. Or they can't afford to go at all.

Don't buy a house in Cornwall if you're not going to live there and add to their housing crisis. You can ask it not to become a landlord bashing thread but you don't get to decide that. People have the right to post and criticize you if they feel you are wrong.

Plenty of homeowners let their homes out for the summer down here by choice, because you can get a year's worth of mortgage payments over the summer holidays, but I don't think you could ask tenants to do that. Although people are so desperate that they would probably accept such a clause. Remember this is generally a very poor area, people who rent won't necessarily have family who can afford to or have the space to put them up, nor might they be able to afford a fortnight's holiday. Rents are astronomical here because of the dearth of properties.

I have no issue with decent landlords btw, I'm a tenant myself at present and have great landlords. I agree with others saying by all means buy a rental property here, but find somewhere else to stay for your holiday.

But for goodness' sake please don't buy a holiday let. We've more than enough already.

There is a massive uprising in Cornwall about landlords buying holiday homes, renting them out & leaving Cornish folks struggling to live where they’re born & bred.
Your plan is bourne from ignorance of a dire situation down there & who in their right mind would agree to your suggestion anyway? Might be your bricks & mortar but it’s your tenants’ home.
Please think again.

Absolutely unbelievable.

You want someone to LEAVE THEIR HOME so you can holiday for a fortnight?

Please don't bother.

Yeah no, this isn't going to work. Please don't buy a second home in Cornwall, it's already so hard for those who grew up in the area to remain there.

Where do you live? If it’s an interesting area maybe you could house swap for two weeks of the year.

That's a complete non-starter. It would be fantastic if you would rent to locals at an affordable price, but when you actually drill down into the numbers, you'll see why so few people actually do (and therefore why the housing crisis is so dire). Plus, a lovely cottage that you might one day retire to will be exactly the type of property that can make big big bucks as a holiday rental.

You could buy a student let in Falmouth or Penryn and rent it out for 10 months of the year.

Yes, lots of locals AirBnB their own homes but that isn't the same as asking a tenant to leave their own house for a fortnight which isn't practical for anyone.

Cornwall has a massive housing problem at the moment so it's up to you how much you contribute to that.

Please don't get angry! As I said in my OP I thought it sounded like an awful idea, but as I'm not from Cornwall (and the friend who suggested it is) I didn't want to assume one way or the other!
We are accidental landlords in that having our second property wasn't a planned investment strategy or anything like that. It just happened through circumstance, and as we have nothing to retire on (in less than 10 years) we need to be sensible about what we do with it.
The likelihood is that we will just re-rent when our tenants move out, but the student accommodation is a really interesting idea that we will look into thank you!

So much of an uprising that locals are only selling their homes to locals who will be living and working there?

Though not

There is nothing special about Cornwall. Plenty of Londoners (me for one) have been priced out of their home city by incomers. Many of whom are from Cornwall or other holiday hotspots originally.

@Paq I think there are set rules on living in the student digs, so not sure they could then stay in it every year themselves. Plus lots of students want to stay for the summer for work or to carry on the contract for the next year of study.

Either let it a house to a local at market rent and accept you're still benefiting from the investment and just pay to go on holiday once a year, or accept you're a second home owner / holiday let owner who is adding to the huge problems we have down here.

The student idea is a good one. Because OP could rent it out until around May when term ends, then re rent from September

Problem might be that if there is damage or problems to fix throughout that summer which means your summer holiday is one of drudgery.

I'm in Cornwall and have never heard of that in a rental, apart from on caravan parks where people have to leave for a month in February.

People really need rental.properties down here but rents are quite low- unless you hold out for people on good salaries who might ne renting before buying for example.

In my village alone 6 rental properties have become hiday lets this year and people are desperate for rentals. I think this would mean that you could pick and choose your tenants.

@GetOffTheRoof I meant a regular house or flat with a student tenancy, not a purpose built student accommodation unit.

Yes, lots of students stay on for the summer but the majority leave and it's very common for LLs to use the summer vacancy for AirBnB.

@bellac11 you are of course right that there are housing issues all over the country but when there are 29000 second homes in such a remote, cut off county it makes a real difference. Especially in an area where wage levels are lower than average. You can't put the blame on people selling, of course they will sell for the best price they can get. They need it to make their next move.

The LA is promising to take action to reduce the attractiveness of second home ownership (which is different from residential LLs or full time holiday accommodation in that it's empty most of the time).

You wouldn't be able to do this. Tenants have legal rights. Including the right to private enjoyment of their home. There is no way a clause like that would hold up legally. If you're already a landlord you really should be more clued up on your responsibilities and the rights of your tenants

That is disgusting. You want to rent to someone and then have them leave their home so you can have a lovely holiday for 2 weeks?

My wife is a housing solicitor and she would have a field day with a tenancy agreement like this if you ever tried to evict them.

The student town one is a really good idea. Exeter university penryn would be good.

In the 1980s the cornish born people owned 90 percent of housing stock and were extremely poor on the whole. Towns were run down, unemployment was high, poverty was commonplace.

Today, of these 90 percent of homeowners, a good 30 percent have at some point sold to Londoners at 5, 10, 15 times what they paid, blown the lot on holidays and luxury cruises, and now they are complaining that their children and grandchildren are priced out.

The profit all started in the bank accounts of the Cornish born and bred... They have made good on the opportunities of the housing boom, lived lives to a living standard light years better than their parents experienced, but once the assets have been cashed in and blown, they now grumble about the outsiders/incomers because they have cashed their chips.

It was their choice. No one forced them to sell and break the historical traditions of passing fishermans cottages and humble net stores from father to son and down the generations... But that london money was too tempting.

Rather than blame outsiders for pricing them out, the younger cornish need to ask their families why they sold grandmas house for half a million in 2017 and where has that 460,000 profit gone????

They wouldnt be priced out if the money was passed down... But it always seems to vanish, all of it, gone... It is then that there is this 'crisis' that we all hear of...

At the same time as many Cornish families are getting windfalls the like of which previous generations would never believe - for places once considered hovels, ruins, dilapidated and unloved

From a tenants perspective it would feel like having a 2 week long house inspection. I hate it just when they're having a cursory look around for 20 minutes never mind 2 weeks.