300% on second homes

Josieann

I'm going to comment that for some owners these homes away are actually what they regard as their favourite main family homes. Their London dwellings are just a pied à terre and they wouldn't live in them if it weren't for work and the kids' schooling. I think it will need more than an increase in council tax to stop the influx.

I agree with this. I have one adult child who has a second home. The second home is used every weekend and school holiday so that his child can have a normal relationship with his grandparents and aunts and uncles.

Some people also have a small flat in London for the many times that work prevents them getting back to their main home in the country.

My elder granddaughter so wants to buy a house in her home
town to be close to me, I have no family near now

It is quite possible to live in the country and commute into London these days without having two properties

Not if your work often and unpredictably goes on until after the last train leaves.

A sixty mile commute every day that working in London is required would ensure my grandchild would see little of his father except at weekends. Not a good outcome for an adopted child. As a family we are trying to ensure he has as normal a family life as possible and that includes both parents and extended family.

People who advocate commuting are most likely the ones who do not have to do it.

maddyone there is no need to be rude to me. I live 50 miles from London and we have good transport links here and it takes 30 minutes. Lots of people with families commute locally to me. It will obviously depend on your local infrastructure.

Your son and yourselves are doing what is best for your family, I can hardly criticise that.

Quite likely. I did it and now my son and daughter in law do it. In all our cases two hours door to door each way.

I have to agree with the Welsh decision. People who have 2nd homes can and should have to pay far more for the privilege. But even then is that the answer?
Developers fill all remaining coastline with bungalows and retirement homes because there's a constant demand. These are out of reach of young families too.
Most of Scotland is owned by 2nd or third home owners. probably an exaggeration

Interestingly, the Isle of Colansay is mostly owned by one family who let out many holiday homes. It's very up market and doesn't allow camping because the plebs in their campervans, tents and caravans will spoil the view. It is a very pretty island but unapologetically a holiday island. for richer folk
colonsay.org.uk/

Tizliz

Can I just throw a hand grenade here and retreat rapidly. Who is selling these homes to second home owners ? The locals! They enjoy the extra money for a while then complain their children can’t afford anything. There is an area of National Park in the Cairngorms where you can only sell to locals - that is a much better idea.

It is not necessarily locals who are selling. This has gone on for ages, and it is just as likely to be one second home owner selling to another.

As regards only being 'allowed' to sell to locals - how is ring-fencing the right to live somewhere pleasant fair? For every young person who feels they have a right to live in a sought-after area because they have local family, there is another who has tried really hard to bring up their own family somewhere safer or with more opportunities than where they were brought up.

Also, who is to say that if a house is sold to someone who can show that they have employment nearby (or however else they are supposed to prove 'local' status) that they won't immediately sell it on or rent it out? And if local people are leaving villages because of diminishing facilities, how will restricting the right to sell help them? It will just lower the value of their homes and prevent them from being able to start again elsewhere.

I think it makes more sense to leave the housing market alone, but to make second home ownership (whether holiday homes, BTL or Air B&Bs) far less attractive as cash cows.

JaneJudge apologies if you thought I was being rude. I thought I was simply rebutting the suggestion that it isn’t too difficult to commute into London. It can be difficult depending on individual circumstances.

Great points you make there Doodledog.

About young local people thinking they have a 'right' to live in the area, I agree too. The problem comes when young people can't stay in the area - schools empty and close, businesses and service providers can't find staff, residents can't get tradesmen.

In our small coastal town the hospital has just announced it is going to close the Minor Injuries Unit partly because it can't get staff. Also, trades people are like hens teeth...the only way to get work done is to employ the increasingly aged group of retired people who continue to keep their hand in...this group reduces year on year.

We need to keep and attract young people to these areas or they will cease to function. Interestingly, lots of young Eastern Europeans used to come here and make our town vibrant. This happens much less since Brexit and as a result cafes, care homes, hotels etc struggle to fill vacancies and in several cases have closed.

I live in the South West in an area with one of the most elderly populations in Britain and the least social mobility. We need young people.

But there is a shortage of housing, affordable or otherwise, and it is wrong for people to have more than one house when they live in them so infrequently. In Dorset increasing numbers of pretty villages are ghost villages, with houses being inhabited for less than 3 months of the year. The people who own them contribute little to the local economy, arriving with groceries, furnishings et al purchased elsewhere, and many of these villages have lost shops, cafes, post offices, schools, garages and churches, plus local transport. Local workers, mainly in hospitality and agriculture, live in caravan accommodation or some distance away, because the small houses their families tenanted previously have been sold to cash buyers, grossly extended in every direction, then left empty for two thirds of the year.

Jane obviously it wasn’t my decision for my son to buy a second home in a village near to us, but I do approve of it because it’s good for our grandchild. It’s a nice village but not a sought after area for holiday homes at all. In the fullness of time my son wants to relocate to the village permanently and sell his house in Surrey. Who knows if that will happen because we can’t see into the future.

maddyone, sorry I was being a bit sensitive which seems to be my default mode at the moment.

when i was a child i would stay with my uncle who lived full time in Looe. There were no libraries or shops then as the town only catered for tourists. Going back over 50 years ago there were very few if any second homes so this is not new. If i thought locals would buy the homes then i would agree with some of the comments but in reality even if the homes were less expensive then the locals would not buy. A lot of youngsters want a bigger town or city where there are more opportunities. the real problem is a lack of homes . The Thatcher policy of selling off council homes and not allowing that money to be invested in building new council houses has a lot to answer for. Not everybody can get a mortgage, so building so called affordable homes is not the answer. Homes at a decent rent is the answer

Jane no worries

I just feel so sorry for elderly people who have lived in these villages for most of their lives, brought their children up there and remember them as thriving and supportive communities where everyone knew their neighbours and there was lots going on.
It must be awful to now be surrounded by empty houses from September until Easter, to have no younger people around bringing new life to the place and taking on the responsibility for organising all the events and groups that brought people together, and to be totally car dependent or have to rely on a very irregular bus service to go to the doctor or the optician, or to consult a solicitor, or do business with the bank or even buy a bog stand household item or a new jumper or a decent birthday or wedding present.
Not to mention seeing the village school being knocked down and view blocking holiday apartments being built on the site, or the old cinema and community centre being neglected and left to fall apart so a developer can remove them and create a culde sac of holiday cottages.

But my village hasn’t had local things happening for years. No carnival or village pantomime. The doctors surgery closed down as did the village shop and post office. It isn’t a holiday home sort of village. It’s all been down to other things, the doctors closed down because the NHS said they couldn’t afford to keep it open, pantomimes etc stopped because the older people that organised them died and the younger people were too busy with both parents working. The garage closed because a bye pass was built. It made the village quieter with less traffic but when the traffic went so did the shops. I think the main problem is successive governments not building enough social housing along with selling off all the council houses and second home owners are being used as scapegoats in some places. I’m not saying this is the case everywhere. When I lived in Cornwall over 50 years ago many houses then were holiday let’s and we could only rent them in the winter. Young people moved away, not because of lack of housing but because they didn’t want a rural lifestyle.

Wizend
Having lived in north Cornwall for thirty plus years (not of Cornish descent myself )have lost count of properties I have observed sold, then seen to be used as second homes.
Standing empty not unusual in winter months for many a week.So no it is far from unreasonable not to expect an increase .The county is not their caretaker , services are there use them.

I saw a film called Bait set in Cornwall it was about the tension between local fishermen and the up-for-the-weekend from London types.
It was exaggerated for effect but rather good. There is a snippet on youtube.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6BvqRqnoss

MayBee70

But my village hasn’t had local things happening for years. No carnival or village pantomime. The doctors surgery closed down as did the village shop and post office. It isn’t a holiday home sort of village. It’s all been down to other things, the doctors closed down because the NHS said they couldn’t afford to keep it open, pantomimes etc stopped because the older people that organised them died and the younger people were too busy with both parents working. The garage closed because a bye pass was built. It made the village quieter with less traffic but when the traffic went so did the shops. I think the main problem is successive governments not building enough social housing along with selling off all the council houses and second home owners are being used as scapegoats in some places. I’m not saying this is the case everywhere. When I lived in Cornwall over 50 years ago many houses then were holiday let’s and we could only rent them in the winter. Young people moved away, not because of lack of housing but because they didn’t want a rural lifestyle.

I agree there's lots of factors and urbanisation and the concentration of decent jobs in bigger towns and cities is a huge factor. Which is one reason why increased use of technology to enable more working from home is important.
A lot of young people understandably want to leave their villages and small towns and see more of the world. But a lot of them also want to return in their 30s and raise their children away from cities. But many find their home places have become tourist villages, full of holiday makers all Summer and empty and devoid of employment opportunities schools and services all Winter.

Government policies support this situation by ploughing money into an increasingly urbanised way of life, including facilitating and enabling increased purchase of holiday homes in rural villages and increased development of tourist facilities in these places.
In the mean time rural living is ignored and left behind.

You raise an interesting point about young people leaving their coastal or country towns to travel and work, then wanting to return to live with their children Beswitched. It can work out for them in some ways. Our DD2 left Devon to work in East London around the time of The Olympics when the scruffy area was regenerated. She bought a small place then, moved up the ladder 3 times and was able to return to a large house in the country 12 years later with her young family. Great school and lively village community. It wasn't all easy and plain sailing, but the effort paid off.

Josieann I am glad to hear it worked out for your DD but it doesn't for most who are trapped by lack of affordability.

Rural living is not for the faint hearted is it. Beswitched

My nephew, not a high earner, moved away to work and wanted to move back "home" when he had his own family. His youngest son is now 16 and they have at last managed to get a council house in his home town. He is thrilled.