Holiday homes

[david51058]

Does anyone agree that it is wrong to buy a holiday home in villages and towns in the UK when it inevitably pushes up house prices, pricing locals out of the housing market and also causing these places to be virtual ghost towns in winter? I would never buy a holiday home even if I could afford one, it's just not right.

[237SJ]

I`m from the South West. Don`t start me on holiday homes. My old village has huge `holes` in it created by holiday homes. When I was little I knew everyone in every house and my father knew their fathers before them. Now a quarter of the village is dead as the houses are empty. They pushed the prices up and priced the locals out of the market. The Isles of Scilly have the worst problem. Locals who were born and bred have had to leave the islands when they want to buy a house due to people London etc putting up the prices.

[cc1]

Ditto North Norfolk, not only do these people prevent local people from buying affordable homes but aso contribute little to the local economy, who wants to bother shopping for food locally when you can bring boxes and boxes in the back of the Chelsea Tractor.

[david51058]

I used to think I would like one, but after visiting a typical village in Cornwall one winter, I totally changed my mind. It was like a ghost town, I found it very sad and selfish on the part of those who had caused it. What's wrong with staying in a hotel?

[joggerjayne]

On the other hand ...

You could provide part time employment for a housekeeper, a cleaner, and a gardener.

[Mosaic]

This is one problem Burnley does not have.

Seriously though, is this really just a holiday home issue? eg look around the central parts of London - rich people buy up swathes and the cleaners have to spend valuable wages travelling in......seems to be the same now with all the large cities.

Maybe the actual cause of the misery is over-inflation of property prices and soaring rents. After all, if you knew you can get a quarter of a million for a run-down house on a bit of land in the south west, would you really resist? Or would you take the money and retire to a convenient modern flat, perhaps in Benidorm?

[mrs_overall]

I live in Whitby and we have whole streets that are now holiday homes. The price of houses around here is ridiculous There is a bog standard 3 bed semi down the road in a village called Sandsend that is currently for sale for £379,000

[atalanta]

I am sure that cash-strapped local councils would love the government to bring in a new law which would let them charge DOUBLE council tax on homes used for less than half the year. Then the Councils could use the extra money towards building council houses to let at reasonable rents for young people who want to live where they were born.