'I can't sell my dream Cornish home despite cutting £100,000 off price'

A homeowner in Cornwall is struggling to sell her 'dream' holiday cottage, despite slashing the price by £100,000, due to the double tax blow affecting second home buyers. Debbie Pugh-Jones, 69, who has resided in Golant near Fowey for 11 years, plans to relocate to Bath, Somerset, to be closer to her grandchildren.

The two-bedroom property was valued at an estimated £425,000 during the Covid period, but Debbie listed it last August for £400,000, hoping for a swift sale. However, interest has been scant and the price has been progressively lowered to £325,000 - a 25 per cent reduction - to no avail.

Debbie, a travel writer, said the property market in Cornwall had been hit by the increase in stamp duty on second homes and a doubling of council tax on such properties, measures intended to make more homes available for locals. She warned that the community risked becoming a 'ghost town' due to unsold, vacant properties.

''People are putting their houses on the market and just can't sell them - the houses are lying empty," she said. "It's detrimental to the local economy. Second home owners contribute significantly to the economy.

"When they let out their properties and holidaymakers visit, they spend more and dine out more than permanent residents.

"I know someone whose council tax has risen to £6,000 a year; he wants to sell because he can't afford the additional tax.

"You're going to end up with a ghost town. The locals try their very best to keep the pub going, especially in the winter, but the pub makes its money in the summer when the tourists come down. If that's discouraged, that's going to have an impact on the local economy."

As of October last year, the stamp duty surcharge on second homes in England escalated from three per cent to five per cent, and, adding to the squeeze, Cornwall Council rolled out a 100 per cent council tax premium on such properties this April.

Debbie said: "I put my cottage on the market in August with the aim of moving to the Bath area because my son has a daughter and I was missing out on her growing up. I'm expecting another grandchild now, another girl, and I'm really desperate to move.''A few years ago I probably would have rented this place out and got another mortgage, but it's the extra stamp duty that's just prohibiting me from doing that now. I did think maybe I could buy something in Bath as a second home and get a mortgage. But even a house for £400,000 I'll be paying £20,000 stamp duty. It just makes it not viable."

Her cottage remains without a buyer, despite being listed by six different estate agencies over the past nine months.

She said: "Originally the house went on at £400,000 but it didn't get any interest at all. I changed agent, still no interest, no viewings. I went through two more agents, then to a company which said they would try to market to investors.

"I came down in price to £365,000, but still nothing happened. So I decided to put it back on the market with another local agent, she got one viewing for a potential investor, but he wasn't interested.

"Another new agent with a shopfront – we're down to £350,000 now – I had viewings from two potential second home owners. A new agent in April said, you know, just forget what happened in the past, we're starting new today. I've still not had any viewings and I brought it down to £325,000 last Friday.

"The extra council tax that's been put on definitely hasn't helped the situation and neither has the extra stamp duty on second homes."

The property was a second home before Debbie bought it for £240,000 as her main home 11 years ago and spent £30,000 on renovations.

"Around half of the homes in this village are second homes," she explained. "But unlike many places where they're anti-second home owners, in this village here, we appreciate second home owners.

"The average age here is over 60, it's where people retire and have second homes. There's not a school in walking distance, there's not public transport.

"This sort of policy, saying second homes could be suitable for first-time buyers, just doesn't add up here. Say the average price of a house in this village is probably around £750,000 or £800,000 – one's gone on the market at £1.9 million.

"I can't really afford to reduce the price anymore, given the house prices in the area I want to go to. If you take into account how much I bought it for, how much I've spent on it, plus inflation, I'm just going to be well out of pocket on it."

Properties left vacant for more than a year face a 100 per cent council tax hike, a measure the government rolled out in 2018 to deter property vacancy. New owners inheriting this premium with an empty home must also shoulder the additional council tax burden.

Debbie said: "Second home owners are feeling very hard done by because, not only are they paying double council tax, they're not using very many of the facilities council tax is supposed to pay for. They're paying for bins, roads, and education, and what are they actually getting from the £6,000 they're giving Cornwall Council when they're not here all year round? Second homeowners are being made to feel almost evil, which is so wrong because they really do contribute to our village."

She highlighted the local housing issue: "The odd one will get sold, but there are quite a few houses in this village that are just sitting empty. There's one on my road, the lady died and that's been on the market since last year, that's been reduced from £700,000 into the £600,000s.

"The road below me, there's a house that's been on the market there for maybe two years. It's a problem. These homes are empty now."