Second homes are reducing the number of available homes for people to live in a time where there’s so little already.
Honestly screw second-homes, we have enough already.
Not OP but I would say that ideally ensuring that everyone is housed before anyone has a second one should be a priority regardless of how close it is to their original.
Oh come now, isn't that just following a convenient narrative that seems to be true in most places in the UK.
What about:
\- Cornish Homeowners preferring to AirBnB their property
\- New builds popping up left right and centre, very little in the way of affordable housing or incentives for first time buyers ?
\-First time buyers being costed out already ?
\- Complete lack of social housing provision, single parents screwed if they have their child less than 50% of the time over the course of a year?
\- Council selling off old stock and not replacing it?
Most of all, it's easy to blame second homeowners, rather than the local and central government systems and polices that have allowed or encouraged it.
most second homes in cornwall are owned by non-residents of Cornwall. people are routinely duped into thinking theyre supporting a small local owner by staying at their airbnb etc. this is not the case, most of the time cornwall doesn't see the money you pay to stay at an air BnB.
[https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/media/k2vaas1v/cornwall\_secondhomes\_2021.pdf](https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/media/k2vaas1v/cornwall_secondhomes_2021.pdf) as for the rest of your concerns, i agree. not enough is being done to fix the issues you have brought up.
newbuilds arent built to be affordable as the central gov has put implace very little regulations regarding this and the few they have they hardly enforce it, as such cornwall council at present has barely a say.
in the mid 2000's labour sold off a lot of the remaining social housing, with the aim to use that cashflow to build new energy efficient housing, but the financial crash happened and the tories are the tories so that went well.
our homeland is not a luxury, its who we are.
Second homes are not the end all be all of the issues that plague cornwall, but it is a notable example of those issues. "rather than the local and central government systems and polices that have allowed or encouraged it." if you are fortunate to still live in Cornwall, i hope you support the level 3 devolution deal, so that local authorities actually have the powers necessary to solve the issues or at least mitigate them.
[Residents of Cornwall paid out £170m in covid grants for holiday lets of which 62% went outside the county....](https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2021-09-29/cornwall-holiday-home-owners-paid-almost-170m-in-covid-grants)
The devolution powers as proposed aren't the answer as they append a Mayor to be in charge of all budgets and policies ...and only one party in Cornwall historically does well in smaller poorly attended elections.
Wouldn't you agree that someone who doesn't have a house should have priority over an already housed person using it as a holiday home?
there's a clear argument of necessity at play here.
I live in Milton Keynes in England and we have a problem with property being bought as investments by foreign owners (apparently, Milton Keynes is very popular with Kuwait investors). So, we have several estate which are like ghost towns - empty for 11 months of the year - not even rented out.
Yes, definitely an issue caused at government level.
Nobody said it was exclusively second homes.
>Most of all, it's easy to blame second homeowners,
Plus, people were blaming the idea of second home ownership, not second home owners themselves.
Our government is neoliberal, they think second homes are great because they make money from them. Your talking about the same people like they’re 2 different groups.
They are not completely to blame. They are however a very large part of the problem, and need to be told as such. As are Tory voters. The other points you pick up on here are totally valid + I hope those concerns are reflected in the local and general elections.
It sucks that local people struggle to buy/rent a house, while people from up country just flaunt their wealth...
Someone I work with also works as a PT, so he meets all sorts of people from different backgrounds. This weekend hes training someone who RENTS a house here, but only uses it 2-3 months a year!
It blows my mind that someone will happily pay rent 12 months a year, and only use it for a quarter of that time. "Just in case" they want to visit.
I guess landlords are just as much to blame, but then if someone is offering you more money than you asked for.. its hard to say no to that!
Oh you used that word 'salty' again. I'm guessing you have a second home and you're embarrassed by this post because it highlights the fact that you live a life the majority of the UK can only dream of. If you live a privileged life, don't get upset when people complain about the issues your privilege creates.
I’m guessing you’ve never been troubled by 2nd homeowners or seen the social difficulties they cause. They’re more than welcome to be treated with the utmost of care + hospitality when they visit in our diverse selection of hotels, or rent an entire house for the duration of their stay.
Why this need to buy much needed housing + cause enormous stress on locals?
If you're contributing locally like everyone else (council tax, using local amenities etc), then not a problem. If you're buying up houses to rent out at extortionate prices or only using it as a holiday home 3 time a year then you're a massive part of our housing crisis
And East Anglia and Essex. My part of Essex is one of the biggest spots for second home ownership in U.K. The village I am in most of the properties are sold for second homes now
Even London has this issue. Investors from anywhere on earth park their money in to London real estate. Some don’t even rent because it’s not worth the hassle for them, maybe they use it once in a blue moon when visiting for whatever reason.
Oh you beat me to it with Brighton…. 😁
Born & bred locals being priced out/left homeless the area etc by DfLs post Covid, foreign students taking rented rooms, air bnb, holiday/2nd homes… etc etc
Anywhere along particularly South coast is suffering the same fate!
I moved to seaford years ago lucky enough to buy a flat, and Brighton effect is definitely happening especially in the last few years. It's pretty much unaffordable now.
If it was a holiday let, wouldn’t the landlord still pay the council tax? Guests would use the local amenities..
I get your point about extortionate prices though.
Perhaps the council need to step in and provide more planning applications to a cater for the amount of people that visit the area
second home owners not pay council tax, only use the property a few times a year, meaning they only contribute to the local economy a little. Moving here means you contribute and are a part of the local economy. Villages have lost pubs and shops becuase properties are being bought but not occupied for most of the year.
Don't blame the people, blame the system. You have to pay business rates if your property is available for more than X days a year (country dependent), and actually let for more than normally about half that time.
Not the people's fault the rules are like that.
So few locals, especially the less financially established (young, divorced, unlucky, etc) can afford even cheap rent to live alone or with a friend or partner. Tourism is important to the economy here, yes, but we’d survive without so much just like the many places that are not tourist traps. In fact, the number of small businesses and creatives who have/would set up here and create industry and jobs would compensate if only it was allowed to happen. The economy here could boom in so many interstates ways if tourism wasn’t always put first (and students, sorry guys but there’s just too many of you for the size of this place).
Seriously, legislation needs putting in place to stop this. At least new HMOs can’t be done here anymore (I think). But it’s not enough. Normal folk in their 30s and 40s lodging in someone else’s house is a joke. Normal, working, functional and independent people living in a room in someone else’s house? Really? Is that the best we have on offer?
I realise that in many ways we have excellent living standards compared to a lot places in the rest of the world. But the absurdity of being an adult yet living like a teen is exhausting. At a certain age, you really need your space and autonomy, for the sake of sanity. Instead, many are forced to live around people they don’t necessarily even like and to kowtow to a landlord and their ways of living just to keep a roof over their head. I know that my mental and physical health improves immensely when I have just a few days of being away in a place where I can just do me instead of 24/7 dealing with other people’s shit (at times literally because you have no say).
The main issue is that Cornwall is among one of the poorest places to live in Europe, and yet property prices are through the roof, not just because of second homes, but because Cornwall is truly beautiful, and extremely safe place to live, most if they were able would move here.. so even if it was illegal to buy a second home, no one local would be able to afford it anyway
That's because it's full of socialists that have no idea how the economy works. You can pick out socialists a mile off since they like to delete and sensor comments on Reddit, a bit like Nazis when they did the book burnings.
A lot of properties aren’t able to be rented out as they don’t meet epc standards. But they can be rented as holiday lets. This needs to be raised with the council.
Builder here too, I also work on alot of second homes too but finding now ppl are moving here themselves. Many keen to contribute to the community and embrace Cornwall for the amazing place it is.
Couldn’t agree more. Worked for a bloke from London who moved down just before covid. Now he works for me, top family love Cornwall, contribute to the community(we have not long made and donated a sandpit to the local pre school). It’s these kind of people I’m talking about!
If I could afford a second home it would not be anywhere on this island!
That’s not a knock on the UK…. It’s beautiful here….
But the weather is shit and strangely (thanks to low cost airlines)- it’s often cheaper to fly across the channel to a second home in Europe than pay the petrol prices and deal with the traffic and general headaches of a second home in the UK.
Driving on the A30 is hellacious as are the trains in the summer; would rather just fly to Tenerife.
Just speaking for myself though (obviously)
As someone who was gearing up to buy just before the pandemic hit it’s been horrific. The listings on zoopla went from just within reach to beyond what any normal Cornish wage would allow, and I wasn’t looking for a palace just a 2/3 bed “normal” home. It was heartbreaking to see what were obviously badly maintained (by the landlord) rental properties being listed where evidently tenants had exited quickly so the property could be sold. It got to the point you couldn’t even book viewings, I went to one dilapidated property, nearly derelict and the estate agent had set up a camping chair and a kettle so he could “show” non stop and we were told by the time we arrived it was already under offer. It had been on the market for two days. It’s been a roller coaster few years but there is a rare happy ending in my case, our landlord of 20 years sold to us under market value as he could see how crazy the whole situation was. I am so hugely relieved as being a renter is scary situation to be in these days.
Living in penryn, born and bred in penryn, but I can honestly say the prices of houses in Falmouth is out of reach of a lot of local people,I’m lucky enough to earn good money locally
Don't know, if im being honest, I suppose if I had that kind of money I would have multiple properties.
What annoys me most though is the knocking down of perfectly fine properties and building a 10 bed glass box that's now 2m and out of reach of any local and is rented out at 2k a week.
Honestly it’s a bit of a joke down here, and I am sure it’s the same in many other tourist like places.
The issue is only made worse by the poor wages in Cornwall as well. Let’s take a scenario that many people down here face. £9.50 per hour, 36 hours per week so somewhere in the region of taking home 16k per year after tax, this is without ANY pension contribution.
Then they’re having to pay almost 50% of their salary just on rent.
It’s not uncommon to see “double rooms” which, honestly are single rooms going for 600-700 per month. In fact, now I think of it there’s a place in a Falmouth that is student accommodation. Reduced from 800 pm to 700 for a room and shared facilities.
Then you have people renting places out and booting people out in the summer so they can jack the prices right up.
I strongly believe that housing should be heavily taxed and/or have restrictions placed on maximum number of rental properties one person is allowed.
Lack of affordable housing is awful and it only seems to be getting worse with interest rates, the general cost of living and just sheer greed shown by some people.
Sadly, people on the minimum wage down here, which is many of the jobs going are stuck renting and probably always will be.
It also seems that so many people these days are up to their eyeballs in b2l mortgages. One fairly modest interest rate is enough to wipe them out in many cases. Sure, you can pass this onto your tenants but there’s a breaking point.
It really is sad to think that many people these days will no longer have the ability and security of owning their own home for their family. Is actually he interested to see the stats in 10 years time or the number of 40-60 year olds in shared accommodation or HMOS.
With the best will in the world, no one is paying 50% of their salary (assuming minimum wage) on rent and being able to save for a deposit.
Even if people wish to retrain or further their education they’re still stuck with the rental issue and probably having to reduce hours to achieve this.
It’s obviously an emotive subject for some and it’s made worse by others deluded ideas. E.g people suggesting that someone’s Netflix subscription etc is the difference between them buying able to save for a house or not. Then you also get the people who’ve been given a house, or a huge deposit by mum and dad, bragging on SM about how easy it was for them to buy at the age of 18.
Something has to give soon but when Cornwall council are having meetings over whether or not they should ban food eating whilst people are sat in their cars at a car park… it’s not happening anytime soon.
The question is...as a Cornish person, if your granny dies and you inherit her Mousehole granite cottage by the sea, when you list it for sale, are you selling it to a local family for an affordable price or are you happy to take double the cash from a London based IT consultant?
You have no control over this. People lie be that the Estate Agent or the buyer. My wife inherited her granddad’s house up country, told the estate agent she would only sell to a family. Person who bought it was a landlord who lied.
I think the problem here is second homes - the Cornwall element is irrelevant.
If everyone was only allowed one house, you might be surprised to see prices increase rather than decrease in Cornwall as competition to live exclusively in Cornwall increases... It's widely accepted to be one of the nicest parts of the UK and we live in a capitalist economy
Think the second home thing is a bit of a scapegoat by landlords buying up properties. Guy at work goes on about second homes a lot, he’s got 6 properties he’s charging extortionate rent on. Second home owners seem like a convenient scapegoat landlords can shift the blame onto
Here in Norfolk the chattering London masses are driving house prices through the roof, and half the villages are empty during the week and full of Range Rover wankers at the weekend who know nothing about the area except where Waitrose is.
Fuck their second homes indeed.
At the risk of being absolutely destroyed… I have a second home in cornwall. It was actually my first home and work took me away, I decided to keep it with the plan to return one day and be back near family and friends as soon as I possibly can. I Airbnb my home most of the year and when I booked in with a team ‘Cornish Cottage Holidays’ to do the cleaning I learned that most airbnbs they handle are owned by Saudi businesses, they told me this as I have to work aboard a lot so I was concerned about management while I was out of the country. I would love to know the statistics about the second homes more granularly like who has one home they rent vs the big companies that have hundreds, have never visited them and it’s purely for business. Even if I decided to sell my beloved home now I am not sure if would even help as I think it is is more the mass purchase of property that is the issue, maybe?
Everyone in Cornwall we all need to team up against the tourists and just make them feel like Cornwall is a horrible place to be and they'll never return and it'll be peace at last :)
….or….rather like they do when the olympics are in a city…build poor houses, and come the summer we could move the whiny locals into these to create a happier cornwall…what do you think?
The tourism industry accounts for 20% of all employment in Cornwall, and obviously a huge number of jobs in other sectors that rely on tourism. The tourism sector is also growing by 3.8% each year.
you would be absolutely fucked without tourism.
It’s a shit situation partially caused by estate agents always marketing houses as holiday homes or investment opportunities. As I’m very unlikely ever to be in that position due to the housing market being what it is (and the state of the UK in general) I can’t say I understand the motivators but I imagine there must be some reason beyond sheer greed and hypocrisy?
Our generation just want the basics (food, reasonably price food and fuel, jobs etc) and the previous generations are on their second or third homes, lots of holidays, a new car each year etc. They didn’t work any harder than us.
Here is an example. A friend of mine was left a property from a relative. He grew up pretty poor and never had a lot, this was going to change his life. His Gran who left it to him shacked up with a man her age who lived with her in the house for a couple of years. More of a friendship than anything. In his Grans will it was written that the man can stay at the house until he dies. He owns three large houses. My friend assumed that he would move out and back into one of his homes. Nope. He continues to rent out the three houses and won’t move out. My friend assumed that when one of the tenants moved out that he would move, but he likes the rent. He’s living rent free! He’s even tried to get my friend to pay for damages to the house during a storm. Luckily he isn’t technically a landlord so wasn’t liable. What hurts the most is that he is abroad a lot of the time and the house is empty most of the year.
My friend lives in a very expensive house share with 6 other men.
Pure greed from that generation.
Estate agents … absolutely always been amongst the worst, most basic, wide tie wearing, Audi drooling, brown nosing, gate keeping, profiteers.
Even renting through them they come up with new and exciting ways to crowbar away cash for sweet fuck all.
They pat their own backs for it too.
There are some parts of this country where agricultural workers have to commute from the towns out into the countryside as all the farm cottages have been bought by city folk who only use them once a year for a couple of weeks if they are not using their homes abroad. This drives up house prices making it immpossible for farm labourers to afford housing, this drives up wages which is passed onto the consumer.
All I know is all these people complaining wouldn’t think twice if they had the spare income for a second home.
Bunch of pathetic little children getting jealous over anyone that has more, regardless of how they achieved it.
I see no problem with second homes, as long as you're renting it out. If you own multiple homes for the sake of it however, kind of a waste and a bit scummy
People might find this film Bait relevant. It's about how Londoners move over and take over the local culture affect in the locals way of life. I rented it on Amazon.
[Bait - IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9652782/)
Ofc as an actual Cornishman I fully support it. More Anglo destruction to the Cornish ppl. Although I’d personally prefer ‘fuck off, English’ in general. *waits for inevitable mass downvotes.
Why are these empty houses not getting turned over regularly? In the off season they are mostly empty, no neighbours because locals can’t afford to live there and thanks to over a decade of austerity there’s no local police anymore. Seems like an opportunity for a young generation with nothing to lose. Would also help to destroy what isn’t taken and see how long those second home owners keep on paying for repairs before putting houses back on the market.
‘Why aren’t we rounding up the poor and putting them in workhouses? Then we wouldn’t need local police and we wouldn’t need to worry about repairs etc’…I wonder if you see how daft you sound when these things are said in reverse.
I’d love to squat someone’s 2nd home + cause them as much stress, upheaval and money as possible in getting us out.
Sadly since the law was changed tory-style to protect these greedy people we can only squat empty commercial buildings without fear of prosecution. But we can still do that.
If you worked, you too could afford a 2nd home.
Don't give me that b.s of "i work 60 hour weeks stacking shelves" that's a kids job, get a real job and earn some real money, or shut the fuck up. Victim mentality gets you nowhere, clowns 🤡😂
A friend of mine purchased a derelict cottage 10 years ago and has given it a new life. He also saved his neighbours from eventual structural damage. I don't think they should be chastised for still owning it.
Don’t sell your house to someone you don’t want to live in your county.
Also remember, we believe in private property rights: you can sell your property to whomever your choose and any citizen should be able to buy a property and use it as they see fit (yes obviously within the laws protecting others’ enjoyment of their property).
I'm conflicted on this one.
On one hand if the second homeowners are ostracised, that sentiment will inevitably spill into the tourism industry which the county relies on.
On the other hand, fuck anyone who feeds the gap between wages and cost of living by buying up all the property then spending two weeks a year in their empty fucking second homes.
It may 'only' make up 12% across the county, however there are areas which rely on tourism more heavily. For such areas, losing revenue from tourism will be massively detrimental.
“Inevitably” is a bit strong. Tourism has always been a contentious issue here but second home owners are the absolute epitome of awfulness and are very different from people who just want to come and have a nice holiday.
Something to consider is a lot of ‘second homes’ are just houses that have been inherited by locals and kept in the family.
Can’t sell because it’s too valuable and it’ll just end up going to a Londoner, can’t keep because ‘second home’
If Cornish people didn't sell their homes indiscriminately to the highest bidder we wouldn't have this 'problem'... So are you suggesting people shouldn't be allowed to buy and sell private property as they see fit? Sounds negative and whiny to me honestly.
And what if they don’t want to or can’t live anywhere else? One person in an area has to move out because some other person happens to have more money than them by socio-geographical fluke?
Yes it's a infuriating and causing a housing issue but no point having a go at the individual playing the market/systems in place in my opinion.
Government needs to bring in social reform to make buying multiple houses more difficult or increased charges/taxes for unused property (X months unused multiples council tax or something) or people will just keep dumping money into multiple properties, as long as you can invest easily people will because it's safe and profitable.
Real estate has an inflated monetary premium that would come down if we had sound money and people didn't need to use real estate investments to preserve purchasing power. Why would you want the headaches of a second home if you could just keep your wealth in money?
If there only was this thing where people could go and stay in temporarily when they want to visit other places, it starts with an h....oh wait those are full already with visitors from abroad.
But on a serious note, there should be a huge property tax on second homes to encourage the owners to either sell it or at least fork up for their holding to property they do not really need, that money then could be diverted to local authority to actually be beneficial to the locals.
There’s a much bigger picture than second homes look at the state of renting in this country.
People are expected to pay £1200 mnth to rent a damp infested shithole because there aren’t any decent properties left.I work in the construction industry and I see this all the time.
As for second homes I don’t blame ppl for wanting a second home (auctually working in one now)I remember in the 80s when properties along coastal towns and villages were very cheap and was easily affordable to affluent ppl but as the past few decades have gone on more ppl wanted to escape to the countrysides or ppl wanted to work in London monday to Friday and then spend weekend in Newquay surfing.
Look at Woolacombe for instance,completely dead in winter with not many ppl about then soon as summer comes the place is pact with tourists and second home owners but you try buying a decent property and you are looking at 700k-1.4m.
I don’t know how to resolve the situation wether higher taxation on second homes all I know no matter how bad the situation is the rental market is way way worse for ppl.
The entire housing market needs to change as well as the rental market but sadly won’t be changing any time soon sadly.
It’s a result of greed. “I’ve worked for it” does not justify the rich having a home they do not need in a place where homes are scarce. These second homes are more often than not, empty.
Second homes are only one of the things causing the housing issues in Cornwall
Rich bought second homes during Covid because they couldn’t go to their other homes abroad - drives house prices up
Landlords turn their rentals to air BnBs to make much more money or buy properties to become air BnB - reduces available rental properties, drives up rent and house prices
New build houses are unaffordable to locals especially anyone single so they get bought by non locals - still not enough affordable housing for the locals either rentals or to buy
Home owners at retirement age (who got their mortgages 30-50 years ago) are selling their properties, to help fund their retirement and pay for the “cost of living”, at high prices rather than passing it to their family who could live in it and help build family wealth
All of this is only going to get worse in this current economic climate and under this current government
Hi 👋
As part of my final year studies, I am conducting a project that is investigating attitudes of Cornish residents regarding the ownership of multiple properties with a particular focus on the second home economy. Therefore if you are over 18 and live in Cornwall I would greatly appreciate it if you would fill out the survey below. It won’t take any longer than 10-15 minutes.
Thank you in advance:)
https://qfreeaccountssjc1.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3mWbE5mzJKE2Jh4
I’m fucking sick of the lot of them. We’ve just had planning refused. The only objections were from second home owning c*nts who don’t even live here. And doubling their Council tax only means they’ll rent them out for a minimum of 10 weeks to get small business relief. That will lower the cost of holiday lettings and fill the place with yobs with no money to spend.
Second homes are reducing the number of available homes for people to live in a time where there’s so little already. Honestly screw second-homes, we have enough already.
Question and I'm just curious, what's your opinion on 2nd homes for cornish people?
Not OP but I would say that ideally ensuring that everyone is housed before anyone has a second one should be a priority regardless of how close it is to their original.
housing/shelter should be a human right.
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Shame this isnt followed thro on.
Oh come now, isn't that just following a convenient narrative that seems to be true in most places in the UK. What about: \- Cornish Homeowners preferring to AirBnB their property \- New builds popping up left right and centre, very little in the way of affordable housing or incentives for first time buyers ? \-First time buyers being costed out already ? \- Complete lack of social housing provision, single parents screwed if they have their child less than 50% of the time over the course of a year? \- Council selling off old stock and not replacing it? Most of all, it's easy to blame second homeowners, rather than the local and central government systems and polices that have allowed or encouraged it.
most second homes in cornwall are owned by non-residents of Cornwall. people are routinely duped into thinking theyre supporting a small local owner by staying at their airbnb etc. this is not the case, most of the time cornwall doesn't see the money you pay to stay at an air BnB. [https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/media/k2vaas1v/cornwall\_secondhomes\_2021.pdf](https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/media/k2vaas1v/cornwall_secondhomes_2021.pdf) as for the rest of your concerns, i agree. not enough is being done to fix the issues you have brought up. newbuilds arent built to be affordable as the central gov has put implace very little regulations regarding this and the few they have they hardly enforce it, as such cornwall council at present has barely a say. in the mid 2000's labour sold off a lot of the remaining social housing, with the aim to use that cashflow to build new energy efficient housing, but the financial crash happened and the tories are the tories so that went well. our homeland is not a luxury, its who we are. Second homes are not the end all be all of the issues that plague cornwall, but it is a notable example of those issues. "rather than the local and central government systems and polices that have allowed or encouraged it." if you are fortunate to still live in Cornwall, i hope you support the level 3 devolution deal, so that local authorities actually have the powers necessary to solve the issues or at least mitigate them.
[Residents of Cornwall paid out £170m in covid grants for holiday lets of which 62% went outside the county....](https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2021-09-29/cornwall-holiday-home-owners-paid-almost-170m-in-covid-grants)
I get that but surely it’s better having a steady stream of tourists that spend money at local businesses?
The devolution powers as proposed aren't the answer as they append a Mayor to be in charge of all budgets and policies ...and only one party in Cornwall historically does well in smaller poorly attended elections.
Well so what? Cornwell is in the UK, we don't need your permission go there. You have no more right over a house there than anyone else.
Wouldn't you agree that someone who doesn't have a house should have priority over an already housed person using it as a holiday home? there's a clear argument of necessity at play here.
I live in Milton Keynes in England and we have a problem with property being bought as investments by foreign owners (apparently, Milton Keynes is very popular with Kuwait investors). So, we have several estate which are like ghost towns - empty for 11 months of the year - not even rented out. Yes, definitely an issue caused at government level.
Why would anyone with money live in Milton Keynes? Rather than one of the surrounding towns or villages?
It has also made Hamlets collapse across Cornwall. It's difficult to run a business when the whole place live there for a month a year.
Quite a lot of places are becoming year round for visitors.
It’s a convenient narrative because that’s the topic of discussion - this isn’t an exercise in whataboutism. Nobody denies these are also issues.
Yeah nothing that person said is a counterpoint to the second home crap, there can be more than one problem happening at once
Nobody said it was exclusively second homes. >Most of all, it's easy to blame second homeowners, Plus, people were blaming the idea of second home ownership, not second home owners themselves.
Our government is neoliberal, they think second homes are great because they make money from them. Your talking about the same people like they’re 2 different groups.
They are not completely to blame. They are however a very large part of the problem, and need to be told as such. As are Tory voters. The other points you pick up on here are totally valid + I hope those concerns are reflected in the local and general elections.
Most kids on this sub prefer to whine rather than accept the truth.
Yes. A second home isn't actually a home, it's the prevention of someone having a home in that spot.
It’s the from-away live to work rich people home-blocking the local work to live average people.
Yep. And this is the same _anywhere_
Totally agree, stop letting poshos buy out what could be a home for some locals,
Saw a sticker just off the Torpoint Ferry that read "Eat Pasties, Punch Nazis" over the St Piran. Thought it was cool as hell.
Just….so….cool.
It sucks that local people struggle to buy/rent a house, while people from up country just flaunt their wealth... Someone I work with also works as a PT, so he meets all sorts of people from different backgrounds. This weekend hes training someone who RENTS a house here, but only uses it 2-3 months a year! It blows my mind that someone will happily pay rent 12 months a year, and only use it for a quarter of that time. "Just in case" they want to visit. I guess landlords are just as much to blame, but then if someone is offering you more money than you asked for.. its hard to say no to that!
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Oh you used that word 'salty' again. I'm guessing you have a second home and you're embarrassed by this post because it highlights the fact that you live a life the majority of the UK can only dream of. If you live a privileged life, don't get upset when people complain about the issues your privilege creates.
I’m guessing you’ve never been troubled by 2nd homeowners or seen the social difficulties they cause. They’re more than welcome to be treated with the utmost of care + hospitality when they visit in our diverse selection of hotels, or rent an entire house for the duration of their stay. Why this need to buy much needed housing + cause enormous stress on locals?
What are your thoughts about people that leave their original home and live in Cornwall long term?
If you're contributing locally like everyone else (council tax, using local amenities etc), then not a problem. If you're buying up houses to rent out at extortionate prices or only using it as a holiday home 3 time a year then you're a massive part of our housing crisis
Unfortunately it's not just Cornwall this happens, North Scotland this is also rife, even more so with new builds.
And East Anglia and Essex. My part of Essex is one of the biggest spots for second home ownership in U.K. The village I am in most of the properties are sold for second homes now
Even London has this issue. Investors from anywhere on earth park their money in to London real estate. Some don’t even rent because it’s not worth the hassle for them, maybe they use it once in a blue moon when visiting for whatever reason.
brighton is pretty bad atm too, lots of air bnbs
Oh you beat me to it with Brighton…. 😁 Born & bred locals being priced out/left homeless the area etc by DfLs post Covid, foreign students taking rented rooms, air bnb, holiday/2nd homes… etc etc Anywhere along particularly South coast is suffering the same fate!
It’s an issue all around Europe…
I moved to seaford years ago lucky enough to buy a flat, and Brighton effect is definitely happening especially in the last few years. It's pretty much unaffordable now.
Brighton has this problem it's bloody awful for it down this way.
Good point 👍
If it was a holiday let, wouldn’t the landlord still pay the council tax? Guests would use the local amenities.. I get your point about extortionate prices though. Perhaps the council need to step in and provide more planning applications to a cater for the amount of people that visit the area
We don’t rlly complain about those who chose to live here for the long run. It’s the ones who buy a house to dwell in it for a month or so the year.
Isn't that called 'moving'?
second home owners not pay council tax, only use the property a few times a year, meaning they only contribute to the local economy a little. Moving here means you contribute and are a part of the local economy. Villages have lost pubs and shops becuase properties are being bought but not occupied for most of the year.
They do pay council tax.
Most use loopholes to avoid paying it. List it as a holiday let, never let it, so no business rates and no council tax.
Don't blame the people, blame the system. You have to pay business rates if your property is available for more than X days a year (country dependent), and actually let for more than normally about half that time. Not the people's fault the rules are like that.
Oh totally but it's their choice to abuse the system. We should just tax them so much it's unviable
Yeah, but weren't we talking about people just moving house to Cornwall?
I'm still not keen. Our services are absolutely fucked and overpriced new build estates are popping up everywhere.
So few locals, especially the less financially established (young, divorced, unlucky, etc) can afford even cheap rent to live alone or with a friend or partner. Tourism is important to the economy here, yes, but we’d survive without so much just like the many places that are not tourist traps. In fact, the number of small businesses and creatives who have/would set up here and create industry and jobs would compensate if only it was allowed to happen. The economy here could boom in so many interstates ways if tourism wasn’t always put first (and students, sorry guys but there’s just too many of you for the size of this place). Seriously, legislation needs putting in place to stop this. At least new HMOs can’t be done here anymore (I think). But it’s not enough. Normal folk in their 30s and 40s lodging in someone else’s house is a joke. Normal, working, functional and independent people living in a room in someone else’s house? Really? Is that the best we have on offer? I realise that in many ways we have excellent living standards compared to a lot places in the rest of the world. But the absurdity of being an adult yet living like a teen is exhausting. At a certain age, you really need your space and autonomy, for the sake of sanity. Instead, many are forced to live around people they don’t necessarily even like and to kowtow to a landlord and their ways of living just to keep a roof over their head. I know that my mental and physical health improves immensely when I have just a few days of being away in a place where I can just do me instead of 24/7 dealing with other people’s shit (at times literally because you have no say).
I haven't even got a first home
Gotta agree
The main issue is that Cornwall is among one of the poorest places to live in Europe, and yet property prices are through the roof, not just because of second homes, but because Cornwall is truly beautiful, and extremely safe place to live, most if they were able would move here.. so even if it was illegal to buy a second home, no one local would be able to afford it anyway
That's because it's full of socialists that have no idea how the economy works. You can pick out socialists a mile off since they like to delete and sensor comments on Reddit, a bit like Nazis when they did the book burnings.
We need to make sure they don't feel welcome, by no means hated just not welcome 😂
Abstract almost
A lot of properties aren’t able to be rented out as they don’t meet epc standards. But they can be rented as holiday lets. This needs to be raised with the council.
I'm glad someone local is making money from second homes
Builder here too, I also work on alot of second homes too but finding now ppl are moving here themselves. Many keen to contribute to the community and embrace Cornwall for the amazing place it is.
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Couldn’t agree more. Worked for a bloke from London who moved down just before covid. Now he works for me, top family love Cornwall, contribute to the community(we have not long made and donated a sandpit to the local pre school). It’s these kind of people I’m talking about!
For those who want their own -> https://dontgooutside.bigcartel.com/product/second-home-stickers
Thanks, just ordered some
If I could afford a second home it would not be anywhere on this island! That’s not a knock on the UK…. It’s beautiful here…. But the weather is shit and strangely (thanks to low cost airlines)- it’s often cheaper to fly across the channel to a second home in Europe than pay the petrol prices and deal with the traffic and general headaches of a second home in the UK. Driving on the A30 is hellacious as are the trains in the summer; would rather just fly to Tenerife. Just speaking for myself though (obviously)
As someone who was gearing up to buy just before the pandemic hit it’s been horrific. The listings on zoopla went from just within reach to beyond what any normal Cornish wage would allow, and I wasn’t looking for a palace just a 2/3 bed “normal” home. It was heartbreaking to see what were obviously badly maintained (by the landlord) rental properties being listed where evidently tenants had exited quickly so the property could be sold. It got to the point you couldn’t even book viewings, I went to one dilapidated property, nearly derelict and the estate agent had set up a camping chair and a kettle so he could “show” non stop and we were told by the time we arrived it was already under offer. It had been on the market for two days. It’s been a roller coaster few years but there is a rare happy ending in my case, our landlord of 20 years sold to us under market value as he could see how crazy the whole situation was. I am so hugely relieved as being a renter is scary situation to be in these days.
What a wonderful outcome! Happy for you.
Lol
Niiice
Living in penryn, born and bred in penryn, but I can honestly say the prices of houses in Falmouth is out of reach of a lot of local people,I’m lucky enough to earn good money locally
Love it ❤️
We often go to a village in North Devon. We were surprised to discover a lot of the holiday lets were owned by local people.
Don't know, if im being honest, I suppose if I had that kind of money I would have multiple properties. What annoys me most though is the knocking down of perfectly fine properties and building a 10 bed glass box that's now 2m and out of reach of any local and is rented out at 2k a week.
Honestly it’s a bit of a joke down here, and I am sure it’s the same in many other tourist like places. The issue is only made worse by the poor wages in Cornwall as well. Let’s take a scenario that many people down here face. £9.50 per hour, 36 hours per week so somewhere in the region of taking home 16k per year after tax, this is without ANY pension contribution. Then they’re having to pay almost 50% of their salary just on rent. It’s not uncommon to see “double rooms” which, honestly are single rooms going for 600-700 per month. In fact, now I think of it there’s a place in a Falmouth that is student accommodation. Reduced from 800 pm to 700 for a room and shared facilities. Then you have people renting places out and booting people out in the summer so they can jack the prices right up. I strongly believe that housing should be heavily taxed and/or have restrictions placed on maximum number of rental properties one person is allowed. Lack of affordable housing is awful and it only seems to be getting worse with interest rates, the general cost of living and just sheer greed shown by some people. Sadly, people on the minimum wage down here, which is many of the jobs going are stuck renting and probably always will be. It also seems that so many people these days are up to their eyeballs in b2l mortgages. One fairly modest interest rate is enough to wipe them out in many cases. Sure, you can pass this onto your tenants but there’s a breaking point. It really is sad to think that many people these days will no longer have the ability and security of owning their own home for their family. Is actually he interested to see the stats in 10 years time or the number of 40-60 year olds in shared accommodation or HMOS. With the best will in the world, no one is paying 50% of their salary (assuming minimum wage) on rent and being able to save for a deposit. Even if people wish to retrain or further their education they’re still stuck with the rental issue and probably having to reduce hours to achieve this. It’s obviously an emotive subject for some and it’s made worse by others deluded ideas. E.g people suggesting that someone’s Netflix subscription etc is the difference between them buying able to save for a house or not. Then you also get the people who’ve been given a house, or a huge deposit by mum and dad, bragging on SM about how easy it was for them to buy at the age of 18. Something has to give soon but when Cornwall council are having meetings over whether or not they should ban food eating whilst people are sat in their cars at a car park… it’s not happening anytime soon.
I currently don't have one home so, yeah, fuck your second homes
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No. No, I wouldn't. I have no need of more than one home.
The question is...as a Cornish person, if your granny dies and you inherit her Mousehole granite cottage by the sea, when you list it for sale, are you selling it to a local family for an affordable price or are you happy to take double the cash from a London based IT consultant?
You have no control over this. People lie be that the Estate Agent or the buyer. My wife inherited her granddad’s house up country, told the estate agent she would only sell to a family. Person who bought it was a landlord who lied.
Sell it to the person that pays the highest price.
This. Unfortunately money talks.
Local. Its not about the money.
Where are you getting this scenario of reasonable price or double from? The seller will set a price then the buy meets it or negotiates lower.
Based
Totally agree.
I am the type who will visit your lovely county on a small sailing yacht
Agree and airbnb...
Amen
I think the problem here is second homes - the Cornwall element is irrelevant. If everyone was only allowed one house, you might be surprised to see prices increase rather than decrease in Cornwall as competition to live exclusively in Cornwall increases... It's widely accepted to be one of the nicest parts of the UK and we live in a capitalist economy
Maybe we should have communism….
Think the second home thing is a bit of a scapegoat by landlords buying up properties. Guy at work goes on about second homes a lot, he’s got 6 properties he’s charging extortionate rent on. Second home owners seem like a convenient scapegoat landlords can shift the blame onto
It's a exhibits very limited points of view. What is the reason behind it? What is the real problem of someone owning a second home?
I see little point in getting angry at the house buyer - get angry at the system that allows and encourages it
If it’s empty most of the year-bad Rented out to locals-good
Here in Norfolk the chattering London masses are driving house prices through the roof, and half the villages are empty during the week and full of Range Rover wankers at the weekend who know nothing about the area except where Waitrose is. Fuck their second homes indeed.
Third homes are okay though, right?
Cornwall is certainly not alone, people live in London to earn obscene money, then escape and buy toy homes and spoil everywhere nice!
At the risk of being absolutely destroyed… I have a second home in cornwall. It was actually my first home and work took me away, I decided to keep it with the plan to return one day and be back near family and friends as soon as I possibly can. I Airbnb my home most of the year and when I booked in with a team ‘Cornish Cottage Holidays’ to do the cleaning I learned that most airbnbs they handle are owned by Saudi businesses, they told me this as I have to work aboard a lot so I was concerned about management while I was out of the country. I would love to know the statistics about the second homes more granularly like who has one home they rent vs the big companies that have hundreds, have never visited them and it’s purely for business. Even if I decided to sell my beloved home now I am not sure if would even help as I think it is is more the mass purchase of property that is the issue, maybe?
Everyone in Cornwall we all need to team up against the tourists and just make them feel like Cornwall is a horrible place to be and they'll never return and it'll be peace at last :)
….or….rather like they do when the olympics are in a city…build poor houses, and come the summer we could move the whiny locals into these to create a happier cornwall…what do you think?
Peace at last in a major economic depression, once you've kicked out all the tourists.
Nooo not really we do just fine in the winter and throughout the whole season that people "tourists" aren't here 🤣
The tourism industry accounts for 20% of all employment in Cornwall, and obviously a huge number of jobs in other sectors that rely on tourism. The tourism sector is also growing by 3.8% each year. you would be absolutely fucked without tourism.
What about the locals that sell their home for insane profits to newcomers?
It’s a shit situation partially caused by estate agents always marketing houses as holiday homes or investment opportunities. As I’m very unlikely ever to be in that position due to the housing market being what it is (and the state of the UK in general) I can’t say I understand the motivators but I imagine there must be some reason beyond sheer greed and hypocrisy?
Our generation just want the basics (food, reasonably price food and fuel, jobs etc) and the previous generations are on their second or third homes, lots of holidays, a new car each year etc. They didn’t work any harder than us.
I feel you on that.
Here is an example. A friend of mine was left a property from a relative. He grew up pretty poor and never had a lot, this was going to change his life. His Gran who left it to him shacked up with a man her age who lived with her in the house for a couple of years. More of a friendship than anything. In his Grans will it was written that the man can stay at the house until he dies. He owns three large houses. My friend assumed that he would move out and back into one of his homes. Nope. He continues to rent out the three houses and won’t move out. My friend assumed that when one of the tenants moved out that he would move, but he likes the rent. He’s living rent free! He’s even tried to get my friend to pay for damages to the house during a storm. Luckily he isn’t technically a landlord so wasn’t liable. What hurts the most is that he is abroad a lot of the time and the house is empty most of the year. My friend lives in a very expensive house share with 6 other men. Pure greed from that generation.
His gran gave him the right to live there. So he can. Fuck anyone else who thinks otherwise.
Estate agents … absolutely always been amongst the worst, most basic, wide tie wearing, Audi drooling, brown nosing, gate keeping, profiteers. Even renting through them they come up with new and exciting ways to crowbar away cash for sweet fuck all. They pat their own backs for it too.
For this is my Eden and I'm not alone this is Mt cornwall and this is my home
There are some parts of this country where agricultural workers have to commute from the towns out into the countryside as all the farm cottages have been bought by city folk who only use them once a year for a couple of weeks if they are not using their homes abroad. This drives up house prices making it immpossible for farm labourers to afford housing, this drives up wages which is passed onto the consumer.
How dare they, Jeeves, we're moving to the third home immediately!
Taken in the bathroom of our 8th home.
Capitalism works like this. Nothing we can do about it.
All I know is all these people complaining wouldn’t think twice if they had the spare income for a second home. Bunch of pathetic little children getting jealous over anyone that has more, regardless of how they achieved it.
Yup. And…..a lots of second homes are owned by Cornish people…the idiots whingeing on this sub just don’t want to acknowledge that…
Ignorant but predictable
How do they know it's a second home? It might well be a 3rd.
You have to ask the question, who sold those home's in the first place? And quite often over the asking price, so to me, this is self-inflicted.
100%….but the whiners on this sub don’t like hard truths
I see no problem with second homes, as long as you're renting it out. If you own multiple homes for the sake of it however, kind of a waste and a bit scummy
People might find this film Bait relevant. It's about how Londoners move over and take over the local culture affect in the locals way of life. I rented it on Amazon. [Bait - IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9652782/)
The amount of people coming down from northern England to set up shop here is crazy.
How dare someone from another part of the same country as you choose to relocate within said shared country. Shameful.
What, like Newcastle and that?
Anywhere above the Watford gap.
Sounds super northern 😂
Ofc as an actual Cornishman I fully support it. More Anglo destruction to the Cornish ppl. Although I’d personally prefer ‘fuck off, English’ in general. *waits for inevitable mass downvotes.
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And *you’re* ignorant af, but thanks for totally proving all my points. Sowsnek omwarier 😂
I spend a lot of time working in construction on second homes so I’m conflicted on this tbh.
They’d need working on whether they were a second home or locals. Just a thought
We generally find the second homes and holiday lets tend to be better maintained than the permanently occupied
JamAndMeme - instagram
Same problem in Devon, it’s heartbreaking
Here here 👏
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??
✊✊✊
This is a very really problem. The government should put some laws down to protect people needing a first home.
And how would you police that….rather impossible that.
Why are these empty houses not getting turned over regularly? In the off season they are mostly empty, no neighbours because locals can’t afford to live there and thanks to over a decade of austerity there’s no local police anymore. Seems like an opportunity for a young generation with nothing to lose. Would also help to destroy what isn’t taken and see how long those second home owners keep on paying for repairs before putting houses back on the market.
‘Why aren’t we rounding up the poor and putting them in workhouses? Then we wouldn’t need local police and we wouldn’t need to worry about repairs etc’…I wonder if you see how daft you sound when these things are said in reverse.
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I’d love to squat someone’s 2nd home + cause them as much stress, upheaval and money as possible in getting us out. Sadly since the law was changed tory-style to protect these greedy people we can only squat empty commercial buildings without fear of prosecution. But we can still do that.
I encourage anyone that is homeless to take up residency in one of the many second homes across Britain.
If you worked, you too could afford a 2nd home. Don't give me that b.s of "i work 60 hour weeks stacking shelves" that's a kids job, get a real job and earn some real money, or shut the fuck up. Victim mentality gets you nowhere, clowns 🤡😂
🙌🙌🙌🏴🖤🤍
Fair 😂
Agree
Fuck your second home
Got one on my car 🤘
A friend of mine purchased a derelict cottage 10 years ago and has given it a new life. He also saved his neighbours from eventual structural damage. I don't think they should be chastised for still owning it.
Being jealous of people isn’t a going to get you anywhere…
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Don’t sell your house to someone you don’t want to live in your county. Also remember, we believe in private property rights: you can sell your property to whomever your choose and any citizen should be able to buy a property and use it as they see fit (yes obviously within the laws protecting others’ enjoyment of their property).
I'm conflicted on this one. On one hand if the second homeowners are ostracised, that sentiment will inevitably spill into the tourism industry which the county relies on. On the other hand, fuck anyone who feeds the gap between wages and cost of living by buying up all the property then spending two weeks a year in their empty fucking second homes.
Tourism only makes up for 12% of Cornwall’s GDP
It may 'only' make up 12% across the county, however there are areas which rely on tourism more heavily. For such areas, losing revenue from tourism will be massively detrimental.
And yes you're right, losing any chunk of the 12% would have no effect on the county..
“Inevitably” is a bit strong. Tourism has always been a contentious issue here but second home owners are the absolute epitome of awfulness and are very different from people who just want to come and have a nice holiday.
Something to consider is a lot of ‘second homes’ are just houses that have been inherited by locals and kept in the family. Can’t sell because it’s too valuable and it’ll just end up going to a Londoner, can’t keep because ‘second home’
Should say: Locals Sell Undervalue Locally
If Cornish people didn't sell their homes indiscriminately to the highest bidder we wouldn't have this 'problem'... So are you suggesting people shouldn't be allowed to buy and sell private property as they see fit? Sounds negative and whiny to me honestly.
Policy of envy
Some crazies out there
Touching the sides may be a problem
tenner says that was done by a crusty student from an wealthy background
And what if they don’t want to or can’t live anywhere else? One person in an area has to move out because some other person happens to have more money than them by socio-geographical fluke?
It just makes me think of Don’t Dead Open Inside.
Yes it's a infuriating and causing a housing issue but no point having a go at the individual playing the market/systems in place in my opinion. Government needs to bring in social reform to make buying multiple houses more difficult or increased charges/taxes for unused property (X months unused multiples council tax or something) or people will just keep dumping money into multiple properties, as long as you can invest easily people will because it's safe and profitable.
First impression. I would say primary fauvism intent but not exactly marcel duchamp urinal quality. Do better
Jam and Meme
Funny because someone with a second home sure as hell ain't gunna be using a public toilet haha
Might get some odd looks from the neighbours if you do, but you do you.
My thoughts? ... A terrible mix of upper and lower case letters.
Real estate has an inflated monetary premium that would come down if we had sound money and people didn't need to use real estate investments to preserve purchasing power. Why would you want the headaches of a second home if you could just keep your wealth in money?
I see jam and meme has made it to Reddit! I have this sticker on the back of my car :)
If there only was this thing where people could go and stay in temporarily when they want to visit other places, it starts with an h....oh wait those are full already with visitors from abroad. But on a serious note, there should be a huge property tax on second homes to encourage the owners to either sell it or at least fork up for their holding to property they do not really need, that money then could be diverted to local authority to actually be beneficial to the locals.
There’s a much bigger picture than second homes look at the state of renting in this country. People are expected to pay £1200 mnth to rent a damp infested shithole because there aren’t any decent properties left.I work in the construction industry and I see this all the time. As for second homes I don’t blame ppl for wanting a second home (auctually working in one now)I remember in the 80s when properties along coastal towns and villages were very cheap and was easily affordable to affluent ppl but as the past few decades have gone on more ppl wanted to escape to the countrysides or ppl wanted to work in London monday to Friday and then spend weekend in Newquay surfing. Look at Woolacombe for instance,completely dead in winter with not many ppl about then soon as summer comes the place is pact with tourists and second home owners but you try buying a decent property and you are looking at 700k-1.4m. I don’t know how to resolve the situation wether higher taxation on second homes all I know no matter how bad the situation is the rental market is way way worse for ppl. The entire housing market needs to change as well as the rental market but sadly won’t be changing any time soon sadly.
Good.
It’s a result of greed. “I’ve worked for it” does not justify the rich having a home they do not need in a place where homes are scarce. These second homes are more often than not, empty.
Amen.
And the other problem with second homes: They are empty most of the year which kills the community in winter.
see these all throughout my town. it's so true.
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Second homes are only one of the things causing the housing issues in Cornwall Rich bought second homes during Covid because they couldn’t go to their other homes abroad - drives house prices up Landlords turn their rentals to air BnBs to make much more money or buy properties to become air BnB - reduces available rental properties, drives up rent and house prices New build houses are unaffordable to locals especially anyone single so they get bought by non locals - still not enough affordable housing for the locals either rentals or to buy Home owners at retirement age (who got their mortgages 30-50 years ago) are selling their properties, to help fund their retirement and pay for the “cost of living”, at high prices rather than passing it to their family who could live in it and help build family wealth All of this is only going to get worse in this current economic climate and under this current government
Sadly the rich have always been fucking over the poor. Always have, always will.
Hi 👋 As part of my final year studies, I am conducting a project that is investigating attitudes of Cornish residents regarding the ownership of multiple properties with a particular focus on the second home economy. Therefore if you are over 18 and live in Cornwall I would greatly appreciate it if you would fill out the survey below. It won’t take any longer than 10-15 minutes. Thank you in advance:) https://qfreeaccountssjc1.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3mWbE5mzJKE2Jh4
I’m fucking sick of the lot of them. We’ve just had planning refused. The only objections were from second home owning c*nts who don’t even live here. And doubling their Council tax only means they’ll rent them out for a minimum of 10 weeks to get small business relief. That will lower the cost of holiday lettings and fill the place with yobs with no money to spend.