Talk to me about second homes...

[wonderingwondering]

We're considering buying a second home in the UK, to use for holidays, weekends. We've a location in mind - good access from where we live by plane/train, close to DH's extended family. What are the pros and cons?

We live in London (central is necessary for DH's work) but are looking for a weekend place with countryside nearby. I don't work so would envisage spending school holidays there with DH commuting for the weekends.

We can afford to move from our current house, but are thinking we'd rather stay put (our current home is adequate for our needs and good location/schools) so we thought a second home in a greener, more peaceful location might be a better investment (financially and in terms of lifestyle) than upgrading our current house.

Any thoughts?

A lot of people are greedy - used to make my blood boil when people pulled the old I am pulling out of the sale unless you pay more trick. Usually done the day before completion.

Housing speculators should be burned at the stake and deserve everything they get in my opinion. It does nobody any favours, but that is a whole new subject

A word of advice - if you have any local events at your rural home offer to get involved in the organisation - committees in rural areas are always crying out for help. The typesetting and editing for our May Queen Festival Program is done by someone who lives in London via email. They are very popular.

Having said all this, unless I was a Beckham or a Bransom and didn't give a damn, I would never DREAM of buying a hh that needed a bloody flight to get there. Nightmare.

We have friends with a holiday home which is over a couple of hours drive away- it is utterly divine, but they are on the edge of divorce as he wants to stay there and she wants a life in town and the house is too far to combine both comfortably and when one of the children has something on at the weekend, she has no choice but to stay in town and he goes there fore the weekend, EVERY weekend. The 5 hour return drive is a killer and would be a no option for me.

Squiffy - have you heard what's happening to Whitstable? accd to a local I know who just sold, the train time to London is going to two hours because of the new high speed link from Canterbury.

Grendel, I had only this morning also looked at Aldeburgh and Whitstable (great minds..).

I'm going to seriously consider the renting idea - perhaps a different location each year! - as well as the cabin/holiday home idea, which I can see has a reduced impact on the surrounding community.

But (to defend myself!) I'm not going to be swayed solely by accusations that wanting a second home outside of a city is selfish or greedy. Wanting a happy childhood for my DC's, wanting a more relaxing environment for my DH, and making the financial and time sacrifices required to make it work, is not selfish or greedy - but I think neglecting the needs of my children and husband would be. And treating 'the countryside' as some kind of drop-in theme park would also be wrong. But there's a happy medium, I hope, which I'm trying to achieve.

Wherever you live, whatever you do, has an impact on society: I suspect many of those who disagree with second homes on the basis that they damage society/communities didn't hesitate to consider the schooling opportunities and local crime rates etc when they bought their house: we all have to make decisions, in the interests of our families, that others might see as selfish. But it is a question of degree.

Why are the purchasers of second homes the greedy ones? Why not get upset with the villagers who are selling the homes to weekenders? Surely they are the ones who are greedy...and they are (presumably) the ones who are extremely familiar with the communities and know exactly how their (selfish?) actions will affect/change the villages.

Earlybird that is a ridiculous arguement! Vendors of properties sell according to the market price. The issue is that incoming buyers have more budget because of their higher earning potential than locals and so they outbid then and thereby push up future prices. I believe actually that some vendors do sell at lower prices to locals but that is their generosity acting and in any case properties which are being sold as result of death or divorce or bankruptcy can really not be sold below the market price. We can all live in only one house at a time, those buying second homes are doubling up on what they need and are taking an extra slice of a restriced size pie. It is the essence of greed - and I don't buy the arguement that you have to have it either because of the factors acting on your life. If Your life doesn't work then change it but you don't have to acquire another house to do that. OP - you've been very gracious about the adverse responses you've received and I'm not going to apologise for being blunt - you may very well find that a second home solves nothing and gives you a whole new range of problems.

Older kids DO NOT want to spend weekends away from their friends or with their parents. At about 12 or 13, their friends become much more important and they want to spend most of the weekend with friends.
I also agree with the comments re being selfish to buy 2nd homes, unless it is a caravan 0r purpose built holiday bungalows etc. This society is so me me me.

dont buy one near us please.im paying your bills if you do.am fed up with 2nd homes.

I have memories of being very angry and resentful of my parents carting me off practically every weekend and holiday of my life. I missed out on birthday parties, football games and lots of other social events just so my father could have his peaceful weekend. I remember thinking that I would never be that selfish towards my own children.

As a teen I also had a tendency to go a bit overboard on the few weekends that I did get to see my friends

How the hell are you paying my bills cheese sarnie?

Thanks all, lots of food for thought.

I think I hadn't properly considered some of the practical implications, as well as the hassle factor, which could be considerable. And despite what I said earlier about the investment side, we are now thinking about a caravan (yay!) or a cabin, with a view to a purpose-built holiday home (I did not know such a thing existed before this thread!) some time in the future - depending on how the children get on and how we find being away for several weekends a month.

So, we're going to book a few weekends away around and about the UK, to find a spot we like, and also to see how going away for one or two weekends each month works. But I do agree that we need to think carefully, work out what we want - and that a second house might well prove more trouble than it is worth.

Thanks again, MN is a good sounding board, as always!

I think that's a great outcome - I'm feeling really jealous of all these lovely (and low hassle) weekends you're going to have in different parts of the UK.

A friend of mine who used to be a great traveller and lived abroad for many years now swears by the National Trust Cottages for holidays:
www.nationaltrustcottages.co.uk/

Thanks for the advice, Grendel, and for that link - had a quick look and there's some lovely places.

If you find a cabin somewhere decent - please post a linkx

Well the only thing I'd say about second homes and holiday homes is that they end up taking a lot of time and money to maintain.

Also the children are never as quite as keen on it as the adults IME - especially as they get older. They end up separated from their friends/sports/hobbies etc at vital times (all times are vital times).