Before the pandemic, around half a million UK households owned a second home — and the number is expected to grow now restrictions have been eased. But, warns ROBIN POWELL, if you’re thinking of pursuing your holiday home dream, remember there’s a down side too.
Elizabeth I had it cracked. Faced with the standard seasonal dilemma – pay for holiday accommodation or buy a second home of one’s own – she alighted instead upon a most satisfactory third way: pitch up at the house of some hapless peer, complete with a cast of thousands, and leave him to foot the gargantuan bill.
Take, for instance, her East Anglian staycation in September 1578. According to British Heritage, just three days of “supper and tarrying” at Lord North’s country estate near Newmarket, had the effect of setting His Lordship back by £762 — a cool £220,000 at today’s inflated rates. Much of it went on food, including no fewer than 23 species of edible bird, ranging from dotterel to peewit. But there was also the obligatory welcome pack of jewellery to consider, as well as hay for around 2,000 horses. A bargain break for Gloriana; potential ruin for Lord North.
Sadly, not many of us can rely upon an army of obliging nobles to finance our holiday whims. For most people it comes down to a binary choice: fork out for a week in a hotel or villa — frequently with everything laid on — or purchase the delights of a holiday home and accept all the hassle with the highs.
Which option is best?
Pre-pandemic government figures reveal that, in 2019, around half a million households owned a second UK home. And although it’s too early to be sure how the virus has changed the game, there are signs that the appeal of an executive bolthole is still very much on the rise. Sure, there were a few pistols at dawn during the first lockdown period, with locals accusing second homers-in-residence of bringing Covid down from the big, bad city and stripping the village shop of supplies. And yes, unfortunately, some second homers will have taken such a financial hit as to be forced into selling up for good.
Equally, however, the irresistible growth in remote working — a trend which, we are constantly told, will not be slowing down any decade soon — has made sea-shaken cottages and rural retreats seem more practical and seductive than ever. After all, if you’re chained to your home office desk, bashing out a company report or trying desperately to crack the Arabian market in imitation furs, what would you rather see out of the window? Atlantic breakers crashing upon the shore or a brownfield development site heaving with restless cranes?
There is a cosy convenience about owning a second property too. Hotels can be chic and exciting, but there is no place like holiday home. Everything from décor to dinner time is firmly under your control. During your absence, moreover, the house stays exactly as you left it. When Good Queen Bess headed off on tour, it took about 300 carts to shift her extensive gear. Merely transporting the walnut state bed, complete with its gold-bespangled ostrich feathers, was enough to drive attendants to drink. Acquire a second home, however, and you can give all that palaver a miss. Simply leave your swanky bed in Padstow or Pembrokeshire and plump up the pillows when you arrive.
Don’t be fooled, however. Owning a holiday property isn’t all peaches and Devonshire cream. For one thing there’s the bills. Water, electricity, garden maintenance – the works. Then there is the investment risk. Right now rural house prices are galloping along like Arkle in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. But what happens if you want to sell just as they fall at a fence? Moreover, responding to the unexpected isn’t easy at a remove of several hundred miles. The last thing you need, as you pour yourself a tipple in Totteridge, is a phone call from the neighbours in Robin Hood’s Bay, explaining with regret that a bull has just demolished the conservatory.
Ethical dilemmas
Individual property purchases do not take place in a vacuum. On the contrary, they make a huge collective impact upon the communities where these coveted residences stand. In the West Country, for instance, there are a number of places where over 90% of properties are currently functioning as second homes. Meanwhile, across the Bristol Channel at Cwm-yr-Eglwys, a charming village on the stunning Pembrokeshire coast, the number of full-time residents has tumbled to a pitiful three. Brick by brick, beam by beam, the second homes phenomenon is changing the anatomy of Britain.
Not everyone thinks that this is a disaster. Second homers bring money into the area economy — not only through the obvious channels of restaurants, cafes and bars, but by employing local builders, plumbers, plasterers and the like, or by paying harbour dues for their boat. Nor do they all play the system, shamelessly letting out their house for the shortest time necessary to register it as a business and thereby avoid paying council tax. Some do, but others not only pay up with honour, but also make voluntary donations to the parish. They may even choose to let out their property free of rent for certain weeks of the year.
Still, there is little doubt that the influx of part-time residents has contributed significantly to a house price boom in scenic areas which is driving many locals away. In Arun, sandwiched between the South Downs and the Sussex coast, prices have jumped by an astonishing 29% in the past year alone, according to Hamptons International. At stylish Rock, the so-called ‘Kensington of Cornwall’, the average house now costs £6,000 more than in London. And rural prices generally are up by around 14% on 2020. The result? A generation of people who simply cannot afford to live and work where they grew up. Even renting is frequently impossible, short of paying through the nose for some dilapidated dump that ought really to have been condemned at the same time as Rillington Place.
Caution is the watchword
This, then, is the decidedly mixed picture to which you will be adding by buying a second home of your own. One way of combining acquisition with a refreshingly clear conscience, however, might be to purchase a holiday lodge instead. Not only are the latest, upmarket models sustainable and eco-friendly by design, but one can snap them up relatively cheaply and without inflating the property market. Bear in mind, however, that lodges — unlike bricks and mortar — are a depreciating asset. Buy one of these and we’re talking more poetry than portfolio.
Overall, therefore, the watchword when thinking about a holiday home is caution. There is much to be said for resisting temptation, staying out of the market and booking into The Grand Hotel. “Some things look better, baby, just passing through,” as Sir Elton John once sang. What if Cornwall, the Cotswolds and the Jurassic Coast are actually a bit like that?
ROBIN POWELL is an author and journalist and a campaigner for greater transparency in financial services. He is Head of Client Education at RockWealth.
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