Second home owners are reportedly finding ways to avoid council tax increases to the ire of locals
“If you go to places like Port Isaac, Mousehole, St Mawes, you could fire a gun there in winter and not hit anybody, they’re so full of second homes.”
Dave Hunter, 70, says spiralling second home ownership in Cornwall has caused significant problems for locals. In his family’s case, it has meant his 45-year-old moving back home with her husband and child.
“My daughter was paying £800 a month rent and earning 30-35k a year so couldn’t possibly afford to save for a mortgage,” Mr Hunter told The i Paper. “We’ve now extended our house and she’s moved in with her daughter and husband. It’s the only solution.”
To accommodate the family, the garage was knocked down and extended, with another floor built on top, which he and his wife moved into.
The extension cost £120,000 which his daughter paid for with a mortgage. Mortgages in Newquay, where their village St Columb Minor is situated, are upwards of £250,000, Mr Hunt said, which his daughter and her partner – who run an arts agency – simply couldn’t afford.
He said the situation was the same for many young people in the county. “I know lots of 30-year-olds who are still living with their parents,” he told The i Paper.
Second home ownership in Cornwall has been a growing issue for the past few decades. Cornwall is the second home capital of England. By some counts, one in 20 homes are second residences.
Many attribute Cornwall’s housing crisis to second home ownership and holiday lets, with rocketing demand, soaring prices, and local residents unable to buy homes. In September 2021, there were reportedly 10,000 Airbnbs and fewer than 50 homes available to rent.
“Too many families are being driven out of their communities by the conversion of rented homes into second homes and holiday lets,” said Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, which supports renters. “In Cornwall, since 2019, the number of holiday homes has increased by around 10 per cent.
“The cost of average private rents in Cornwall rose by nearly nine per cent between 2024 and 2025, twice as fast as our wages grew.”
Mr Hunter said there is strong feeling among Cornish residents about second homers, “particularly among young people under 35 who are trying to get on the property ladder”.
“There’s anger. I mean it’s not like the 1970s, no one’s going to set fire to them or anything like they did in Wales. But you see lots of stickers around the place. There’s a famous sticker which is a Cornish flag and in each corner it says ‘f*** your second home’,” he said.
A resident since 1978, Mr Hunter said the number of second homes had risen exponentially over the years. Mawgan Porth, on the Cornish coast, is just one area that has become popular – Cate Blanchett is building a house there, as is the CEO of Innocent Smoothies. “I’m sure both properties will sit empty for most of the year,” Mr Hunter said. “The whole area of Mawgan Porth is being developed and as soon as a property comes up for sale, they’re bought and immediately knocked down and new houses built in their place which aren’t going to be lived in by residents.”
As a means of balancing budgets and deterring second home ownership, a swathe of councils are set to introduce additional tax charges on second residences in April.
Cornwall is one of 150 local authorities – the majority beauty spots and getaway destinations – that will levy a 100 per cent council tax charge on second homeowners – meaning some could be hit by an extra £2,460 to £4,920.
But some second homeowners are reportedly exploiting loopholes to avoid the tax hikes – by transferring properties into children’s names or putting homes on the market with no intention of actually selling – much to the ire of locals.
Mr Hunter said he has heard of people attempting to swerve the tax hike. “One of the houses down from me, it’s a second home – he’s a farmer from Dorset who has now registered that house on the electoral roll as his primary residency so he will pay less council tax,” he explained.
He thinks the tax increase is a “superb idea” and trying to avoid it is “fundamentally wrong”. Mr Hunter said that he would go even further and make all second homes register as business lets so they would have to pay business rates.
If the tax-avoiding happens en masse, it will leave a hole in the cash-strapped council’s budget which currently has a deficit of £100mn. Cornwall Council had hoped to raise £24mn by charging the premium on around 12,200 second homes.
The council is allegedly also planning to ask the Government to increase the surcharge to 300 per cent, introduce a £3 tourist tax and close a business relief loophole used to avoid higher council tax charges.
In a whitepaper in 2024, the council said that “the prevalence of second and holiday homes” was having “negative effects” on the housing market and the additional revenues raised were needed to address the county’s “housing crisis, a super-ageing and inverted population profile, some of the lowest household incomes in Europe, weak infrastructure and an economy that remains too reliant on tourism and hospitality”.
Michael Roberts, chairman of Mevagissey Parish Council, said he was not aware of people exploiting the rules – but that locals would be ”angry” about it as many young people are unable to buy a property due to the large number of second homes in the village and the fact that those that are available are too expensive.
He said: “I am sure people would be very angry about this. 27 per cent of properties in the village are second homes and we have a population of about 2000 people.
”There is very strong feeling about the number of properties which are second homes. We are in a housing crisis, young people want to find a home to start their married life and so on. The so-called affordable housing isn’t affordable because the average wage is extremely low in this part of the world.
“It is very difficult to find properties that are close to the center of the village.”
Mr Roberts said the problem had been “growing over a number of years” meaning most people would be “quite in favour” of the council tax surcharge.
If second home owners are finding ways around it, he added, “there should be a tightening up of the rules to ensure everybody is playing the game”.
“Inevitably a lot of things will fall through the system. If it works as it was intended, it would bolster the services the council provides. Inevitably there are people who have rather deep pockets who are looking for ways they can legally get around it.”
Cornwall Council has been approached for comment.