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Rental nightmare in coastal Cornwall (and coastal Devon, IoW)


Frank Hovis

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Wight Flight
9 minutes ago, Frank Hovis said:

And horrendous on a personal level as @Wight Flight will testify.

One of the big social benefits put forward for a big fall in house prices was that it would enable couples to start a family earlier in a decent house purchased on a single salary.

Back in the day on ToS there were always some people who countered this by saying that they had been unable to buy but hadn't let this stop them and they had successfully raised a family in a succession of rental properties and had felt perfectly happy in doing so.

More power to their elbow however then you hit something unexpected like this and you have a very big problem because you are in work and the kids are in school and whilst homelessness is not a threat because you could move somewhere less fashionable and commute.

 

Or rather this is what I have been saying; I thought I would check Camborne again (inland, down at heel, cheap) which had plenty of rentals including three bed houses available the last time I looked and is now down to two 1 bed flats and one room in a house share.

This is the first - fullly booked for viewings.

image.thumb.png.ab9c935496d0ec219c78f1ede9f38b21.png

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?searchType=RENT&locationIdentifier=REGION^273&insId=1&radius=0.0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&minBedrooms=&maxBedrooms=&displayPropertyType=&maxDaysSinceAdded=&sortByPriceDescending=&_includeLetAgreed=on&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType=&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&letType=&letFurnishType=&houseFlatShare=

It has rapidly become much worse.

The word crisis is over-used but I am now calling a rental crisis in Cornwall as the "move inland" option is suddenly no longer there.

It is looking very bad indeed.  We are looking at the spectre of mass homelessness in Cornwall (and probably Devon, IoW, Anglesey) this summer whilst holidaymakers pour into all of the second homes and static caravans.

 

It is looking grim, and I am not sure what the solution is.

Probably a big clampdown on holiday lets. Make it necessary to get change of use planning consent?

It is noticeable that our hotels have been closing down, whilst holiday homes have gone stratospheric.

I guess in the future that will have to put covenants on any new build or the problem will just get worse.

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Frank Hovis
21 minutes ago, Wight Flight said:

It is looking grim, and I am not sure what the solution is.

Probably a big clampdown on holiday lets. Make it necessary to get change of use planning consent?

It is noticeable that our hotels have been closing down, whilst holiday homes have gone stratospheric.

I guess in the future that will have to put covenants on any new build or the problem will just get worse.

There has ironically been a huge amount of housebuilding in Cornwall but this has mostly been bought by people moving from up country in my estimation.  I have no problem with this - if somebody already in the UK wishes to live somewhere else in the UK that's fine.  It's the tourists / second homers / holiday lets that I dislike en masse if not on an individual level.

A lot of the people struggling to find a rental will be registering with the Council as being at risk of homelessness so the Council must know the situation.  Though what they can do bar highlighting it and appealing for empty homes to be let out in what is going to be the busiest tourist summer in Cornwall ever with everything fully booked I cannot see; but they haven't even done this.

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Wight Flight
9 minutes ago, Frank Hovis said:

There has ironically been a huge amount of housebuilding in Cornwall but this has mostly been bought by people moving from up country in my estimation.  I have no problem with this - if somebody already in the UK wishes to live somewhere else in the UK that's fine.  It's the tourists / second homers / holiday lets that I dislike en masse if not on an individual level.

A lot of the people struggling to find a rental will be registering with the Council as being at risk of homelessness so the Council must know the situation.  Though what they can do bar highlighting it and appealing for empty homes to be let out in what is going to be the busiest tourist summer in Cornwall ever with everything fully booked I cannot see; but they haven't even done this.

I have started seeing posts on Facebook looking for a piece of land / garden to rent for people to pitch a tent. 

(To live in, not for a holiday)

 

 

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Frank Hovis
1 minute ago, Wight Flight said:

I have started seeing posts on Facebook looking for a piece of land / garden to rent for people to pitch a tent. 

(To live in, not for a holiday)

 

 

Fuck's sake.

And the government's answer to this mess is to guarantee low deposit mortgages.

 

Just putting in a marker to myself on Rightmove as I'm expectng this to become even worse.

Total rentals in all of Cornwall: 125

Of which three bed or more: 63

Of which £1,000 per month or less: 19

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION^61294&minBedrooms=3&maxPrice=1000&sortType=1&propertyTypes=&includeLetAgreed=false&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&keywords=

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Wight Flight
1 minute ago, Frank Hovis said:

Fuck's sake.

And the government's answer to this mess is to guarantee low deposit mortgages.

 

Just putting in a marker to myself on Rightmove as I'm expectng this to become even worse.

Total rentals in all of Cornwall: 125

Of which three bed or more: 63

Of which £1,000 per month or less: 19

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION^61294&minBedrooms=3&maxPrice=1000&sortType=1&propertyTypes=&includeLetAgreed=false&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&keywords=

Ok. I will join in. Your population is almost exactly 4 times ours.

Total rentals available - 29

Three bed or more - 9

Of which under £1k - 5

I think we are officially slightly more fucked than you are.

 

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Frank Hovis
3 minutes ago, Wight Flight said:

Ok. I will join in. Your population is almost exactly 4 times ours.

Total rentals available - 29

Three bed or more - 9

Of which under £1k - 5

I think we are officially slightly more fucked than you are.

 

Obviously it's not a competition but Cornwall has so many areas where you are only going to live if you can't afford somewhere better that I genuinely thought that however bad it became there would always be rentals available somewhere.

I was shocked by how few were available in Falmouth and Newquay, though these are areas people wish to live, but I was absolutely astounded by that return of just three rentals in Camborne (it's okay, but if you can live by the sea then you do) and all only one bed. 

There are still quite a few available in the inland towns in the east of the county but the way that Camborne has gone in two short weeks I am thinking it is now only a matter of weeks before they all go across the board leaving just the expensive ones.

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Could it be we're seeing the minimum/lower wage workers priced out of renting in much of the UK as well as buying?

BTLers renting out to holidayers via airb&b or ramping up the rent as demand from incomers from cities looking to rebalance their lives causes a migration of uk residents, some renting to try out the life change others buying while prices look value for money compared to their already ramped city place.

Ever increasing foreign student numbers taking up the slack of inner city rentals, and social housing of gimmigrants overflowing to private sector, ensuring there is demand for those looking to sell and relocate.

So the disconnect between wages and accommodation continues to get worse as there are too many others able to avoid that equation one way or another.

They may have to relocate up north where there is still cheap property (minimum wage still applies up there if there is the work), or continue to pay a disproportionate amount of their wage for accommodation, trapping them in servitude as the government's 'hard working people' increasingly known as mugs.

Whatever is happening it will takes years to change for the better, if it ever really does. Years in limbo if waiting for what may never come.

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Frank Hovis
11 minutes ago, BoSon said:

Could it be we're seeing the minimum/lower wage workers priced out of renting in much of the UK as well as buying?

BTLers renting out to holidayers via airb&b or ramping up the rent as demand from incomers from cities looking to rebalance their lives causes a migration of uk residents, some renting to try out the life change others buying while prices look value for money compared to their already ramped city place.

Ever increasing foreign student numbers taking up the slack of inner city rentals, and social housing of gimmigrants overflowing to private sector, ensuring there is demand for those looking to sell and relocate.

So the disconnect between wages and accommodation continues to get worse as there are too many others able to avoid that equation one way or another.

They may have to relocate up north where there is still cheap property (minimum wage still applies up there if there is the work), or continue to pay a disproportionate amount of their wage for accommodation, trapping them in servitude as the government's 'hard working people' increasingly known as mugs.

Whatever is happening it will takes years to change for the better, if it ever really does. Years in limbo if waiting for what may never come.

 

Where that hurts the wealthy is that they are going to find that their higher rental returns are pricing out the very people that they want to cook and serve their meals or clean their hotel rooms.

This is why I think the sudden evaporation or rentals in Camborne is such huge news.

Below is a map of Cornwall.  It is a peninsula that gets narrower as it goes west and the tourist hotpsots / desireable places to live also cluster in the west: Penzance, St Ives, Hayle, Falmouth.

Generally the people who have low wage jobs in those towns can't afford to live there (it varies between them but as a generality it is the case) so are travelling in from Camborne / Redruth and Helston.

But if they now can't afford to live in Camborne / Reduth and Helston then they are going to have to move east to the even cheaper rents in towns surrounding Bodmin Moor or "Clay Country" - the areas north of St Austell.

But nobody is going to commute from Liskeard to St Ives or Falmouth for a minimum wage job as they could have done from Camborne / Redruth.

I anticipate a Cornwall Tourist Board cry for migrant workers this summer now that the locals have been successfully priced out.

AONB-areas-map.jpg

 

This was to an extent the case a few years back; my parents had a workman who lived at Sea View Terrace (I think that's the name) near Fraddon (halfway between Newquay and Bodmin on the above and next to the white road).

In the high (hence Sea View) bleak middle of nowhere on a fast and busy cut through road stands a terrace of half a dozen small Victorian houses built for clay workers.  No gas and from memory no mains water - each has a borehole - or sewerage.

He had bought it because it was cheap but it was cheap for a reason and getting your car out was always an adventure in the high speed traffic.  Hence this was the only reference I could find to it online.

 

3.3 Sea View Terrace

I have been contacted by residents from Sea View Terrace to the south of Fraddon following an accident. There have been a number of previous incidents and I am following up the resident’s concerns about the speed of traffic past their homes. Traffic speeds were last reviewed in 2015 and I have formally requested that some fresh speed recordings are undertaken.
 

https://mebyonkernow.blogspot.com/2019/11/my-latest-monthly-report.html

 

Picture on google maps below.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.3610777,-4.9324101,3a,75y,306.35h,91.22t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHHbZR9wMtK9WeWOCs3gXCw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

 

These are going to be the last cheap houses left in Cornwall.

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Wight Flight
3 hours ago, Frank Hovis said:

Where that hurts the wealthy is that they are going to find that their higher rental returns are pricing out the very people that they want to cook and serve their meals or clean their hotel rooms.

I have already seen it happening. I know of (via Facebook) a nurse and a teacher who accepted jobs here, but didn't take them up as they couldn't find anywhere to live.

Care home workers are a real scarcity here, and that is only going to get worse.

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Frank Hovis
Just now, Wight Flight said:

I have already seen it happening. I know of (via Facebook) a nurse and a teacher who accepted jobs here, but didn't take them up as they couldn't find anywhere to live.

Care home workers are a real scarcity here, and that is only going to get worse.

That happened on the Isles of Scilly about four years ago and it made the national news because the one care home there was going to have to close because they couldn't get staff.

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Wight Flight
1 minute ago, Frank Hovis said:

That happened on the Isles of Scilly about four years ago and it made the national news because the one care home there was going to have to close because they couldn't get staff.

We have the odd situation of relatively high unemployment, but jobs going unfulfilled because those that would do them can't get housing.

It's a topsy turvy world.

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Frank Hovis
13 minutes ago, Wight Flight said:

We have the odd situation of relatively high unemployment, but jobs going unfulfilled because those that would do them can't get housing.

It's a topsy turvy world.

One solution is forcing those fortunate enough to have social housing to work as s condition of having that housing; as used to be the case.

Key worker homes were meant to be this but their numbers are tiny.

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Wight Flight

I wonder if capital gains tax on account would make any difference?

The person that bought my last place will have made £50k profit already. They might not be quite so smug if they got a bill for £20k CGT now.

.gov would love this as it would put money in their coffers that would otherwise go to some future administration.

It would certainly make second homes less attractive, without actually instigating a financial penalty in real terms.

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3 hours ago, Wight Flight said:

I wonder if capital gains tax on account would make any difference?

The person that bought my last place will have made £50k profit already. They might not be quite so smug if they got a bill for £20k CGT now.

.gov would love this as it would put money in their coffers that would otherwise go to some future administration.

It would certainly make second homes less attractive, without actually instigating a financial penalty in real terms.

You have a total of 30 days after sale to pay the CGT on residential property

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Wight Flight
1 hour ago, eek said:

You have a total of 30 days after sale to pay the CGT on residential property

I know.

I was suggesting the tax is due on an annual basis, sold or not.

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Frank Hovis
8 hours ago, Wight Flight said:

I know.

I was suggesting the tax is due on an annual basis, sold or not.

 

IIRC Biden was suggesting that generally but was torn off a strip by investment companies who would be in the position of being forced to sell shares to pay CGT every time the market rose.

I still like my council tax replacement of half a percent of value; doubled on second homes and further increased for any after that.

You said that was their primary residence so that will be another £250 a year CT.

I know it doesn't sound much but it is real money whilst the £50k is only a paper profit.

For example I genuinely do not feel any richer because my house has gone up in value because it's not what I regard as a saleable asset but if my CT increased as a result I would be actually disliking its value rising and would be looking to the government to do something to keep house prices down.

Me and a few million other voters.

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Wight Flight
6 minutes ago, Frank Hovis said:

For example I genuinely do not feel any richer because my house has gone up in value because it's not what I regard as a saleable asset but if my CT increased as a result I would be actually disliking its value rising and would be looking to the government to do something to keep house prices down.

I understand your point, but I would be a bit miffed that my council tax had gone up by £1,000 this year because my landlord's property had gone up in value.

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Frank Hovis
12 minutes ago, Wight Flight said:

I understand your point, but I would be a bit miffed that my council tax had gone up by £1,000 this year because my landlord's property had gone up in value.

That was another aspect: payable by the owner and not the tenant.

Plus an accelerator on multiple homes actively dissuades BTL portfolios because if on your sixth property CT is at 3% then you will not be able to include that in the rent and find someone to pay it.

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Wight Flight
4 minutes ago, Frank Hovis said:

That was another aspect: payable by the owner and not the tenant.

It may be the legal responsibility of the owner, but it will still be paid by the tenant.

6 minutes ago, Frank Hovis said:

Plus an accelerator on multiple homes actively dissuades BTL portfolios because if on your sixth property CT is at 3% then you will not be able to include that in the rent and find someone to pay it.

I don't think all portfolio landlords are bad. We just need to change how they interfere / influence the rest of the housing market and how they access finance.

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I really don't give a fig about how rich other people are so I'm fine with people owning multiple houses and renting them out and holidaying in them.

However, I do think that there should be more of a cost. Residential finance should not be available - only business finance. Any existing residential finance deals should be unwound. And council tax should be doubled for non residence properties, and paid by the owner.

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Frank Hovis
1 hour ago, Wight Flight said:

It may be the legal responsibility of the owner, but it will still be paid by the tenant.

It is better for it to be included in the headline rent because then people have a better idea of their total housing costs in a particular area without having to research them for each property.

Your ?Surrey council tax bill was a good example of this hidden cost.

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On 23/04/2021 at 10:22, Wight Flight said:

Yes but - there are well paid jobs in Bristol.

Apart from the public sector, we are pretty much a minimum wage economy.

Look at the LHA rate for a two bedder - Bristol £825 per month, IOW £575.

 

 

I'm not sure there are, not anymore.

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On 23/04/2021 at 10:22, Wight Flight said:

Yes but - there are well paid jobs in Bristol.

Apart from the public sector, we are pretty much a minimum wage economy.

Look at the LHA rate for a two bedder - Bristol £825 per month, IOW £575.

 

 

Average salary in Bristol isn't great, £30k. Go on a job websites and majority of the jobs here will be £10 p/h slave stuff. Although I do admit unemployment is pretty low.

The real reason rents and house prices are going through the roof here is similar to Cornwall, people with plumy accents moving here with inherited money, home county BOMAD gifts/loans and remote workers on London salaries who get the train into the London office few times a month. But above all of this is that money is like water these days.

So in the end of the day I'm not blaming them and the Cornish/IoWs shouldn't. If you're not on at least £40k then you're not even in the game I reckon. A 4x4 scummy mummy will be bringing down more than that. The Cornish, IoWs, Bristolians et al are just getting out competed...I know fuck ton of tradies on £500 per day alone. I imagine some home county Hugo doing his bullshit remote marketing job for some London firm will be on £80k etc

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Wight Flight
54 minutes ago, gibbon said:

Average salary in Bristol isn't great, £30k

Our average is £23k.

My step brother lives in Bristol.

He and his wife are both teachers with a paid for house. Lucky buggers.

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About 10 years ago a mate of mine rented a room in a really shitty house share in a really shitty street in Belfast.

Each of the occupants of the house share was a person in their 30's or older in a minimum wage job who didn't have a partner or children.

The posts above seem to suggest that this is where things will continue to drift towards for lower earners - the quality of life they can aspire to is renting a room in a shared house like a student.

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