The UK second home market
Ownership of a holiday home by the sea or holiday cottage in the country is at an all time high according to research from Knight Frank.
There are now 245,384 registered second homes in the UK. 6212 more second homes were bought last year, an increase of 2.6 per cent on 2008 when the recession and credit crunch saw growth falter.
Why the growth? The number of second homes has reached a record high due to a combination of renewed confidence in the economy, low-cost borrowing, weak returns on cash investments and a weak pound – which makes buying a property in the UK a more attractive option than Europe.
Where are the UK second home hotspots?
The top second home hotspots in 2009 were in the South Hams area in Devon, including locations such as Dittisham, Kingswear and Salcombe. Nearly one in 10 homes in the South Hams district are registered as second homes, followed by North Cornwall at 9.6 per cent.
In London, concentrations of second homes can be even greater than in the coastal hotspots, due to the demand of having a flat in the capital among long distance commuters. In the City of London, nearly a quarter of residential units in 2009 were classified as second homes.
Other popular counties for second home owners are the Isle of Wight, Dorset, Cumbria, Northumberland and Norfolk.
However, there are concerns that second home buyers are pushing property prices up in popular locations, making it difficult for locals to buy. In the Cornish resort of Rock, prices are close to 100 per cent higher than the local average. The average price in the town is £430,632; the average for the local authority is £215,392.
So where should you buy a second home? It’s interesting to note that the 10 towns that recorded the biggest growth of the past decade were on, or close to the coast, outpacing even the London market.
It will be interesting to see what effect the changes to the tax rules for furnished holiday lets have on UK second home sales in the future.