Our picturesque seaside town is ruined by second-home owners – they’re forcing house prices up & locals are missing out
PEOPLE living in a picturesque seaside town fear it's being ruined by second home-owners who are forcing up house prices while locals miss out.
Residents in the popular North Yorkshire resort of Robin Hood's Bay say they can no longer afford homes there due to newcomers snapping up holiday cottages.
Average home prices in the historic fishing village near Whitby have now hit £488,000, according to property firm RightMove.
That's more than double the typical £200,000 for similar homes in Scarborough just 13 miles along England's north-eastern coast.
And Robin Hood's Bay-based estate agent James Smith warned it was becoming increasingly tricky for locals to afford cottages there.
He told : "There are some owners from the south and even some international owners but relatively few cottages change hands.
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"Prices are usually at a premium, especially if you have a nice place to sit out or a good sea view."
He also told of how potential workers such as cleaners and waitresses were being priced out of the area.
He added: "The village is as popular as ever, but it is getting hard for local businesses to get staff to service the needs of the visitors and cottage owners."
Similar concerns about second home-owners pricing out local residents have been raised at the other end of the country in the Devon resort Sidmouth.
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Complaints about not only second home-buyers but also tourists were made earlier this summer by people in Bamburgh, on the Northumberland coast.
And other seaside resorts where residents fear being pushed out by new arrivals Falmouth, Newquay and Padstow in Cornwall as well as Newport in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Their concerns are echoed by locals in Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk and The Witterings in West Sussex.
