Cornish first-time buyers could soon have a better chance of getting on the property ladder in Mevagissey rather than being outbid by wealthy second home owners.

A plan has been formed to block people from purchasing properties in the harbour village for use as a holiday home, in an effort to "restore the balance to the playing field for local people".


It follows a rule brought in last year at St Ives which bans new-builds from being sold as second homes.

Cornwall councillor for Mevagissey James Mustoe also said first-time buyers "have been priced out of the communities where they grow up" due to earning a salary about 20 times less than the average house price.

However residents involved in creating the Mevagissey Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) are fighting for a change.

The plan, which has been submitted to Cornwall Council and is due to shortly be returned to residents for a referendum which could result in it being adopted as official policy, proposes to ban any further second homes from being built.

It states: "The permanent population of Mevagissey has fallen slightly over the last 200 years but since 1930, the buildings in the village have more than doubled.

"Twenty six per cent of the homes in Mevagissey are holiday homes and another 12 per cent are listed buildings. These statistics are mutually dependent, since heritage features are popular with holiday home owners.

"As a consequence, local house prices are beyond the reach of many local people and the parish council has built a number of affordable homes over the last decade to tackle this problem."

It said there was a concern that "uncontrolled or unsympathetic development" could compromise the assets of the parish, its character, coast and countryside.

People have shared mixed opinions about the plans on the Cornwall Live Facebook page, with some claiming that the pricing was influenced by greed.

Writing on Facebook, Bryan Ives said: "If the Cornish people stopped selling their overpriced houses for huge profits they would not be having these problems.

"You can only sell it once then it's out of the poor kids price bracket so look to your people for selling their overpriced houses stop blaming everyone else but yourselves. Your own Cornish people are to blame for deserted villages in winter."

Grahame Hounslow added: "I was born and bred in High Wycombe Bucks. In 1977, when I bought my first house, had to buy 18 miles away as I could not afford to buy in my home town, both my wife and I had 20 mile each way commute to work, her on the bus. We were just glad to have our own home and took it for granted as the way of the world not winge, winge, winge."

Kylie Bisby posted: "There is houses under £140k. It's the wages that are the problem. A generation stuck in private rented accommodation paying someone's mortgage so cannot afford to save for the huge deposits needed. Same here in Lincolnshire. Don't think it's the second homeowners really."

Abi Doutreligne-Richards said: "The problem I have with second homes isn't that they push the prices up - lots of valid comments about supply and demand and wages too low etc.

"But the huge amount of second homes in the 'prettiest' villages mean that there's no community any more. Out of season the place is deserted, village shops and schools have to close, we're losing the characters that make Cornwall special by dividing up these families and communities that have stood for generations."

Dave Morgan commented: "Not much difference from young people growing up in the Greater London Area, how are they ever going top be able to afford even a shed in the East End at the ridiculous prices quoted for property on programmes like Location, Location, Location is questionable.

"It's the lack of social housing (council houses) all over the country that has created this state of affairs. There have been 'second home' owners in Cornwall for hundreds of years."

Brian Leah added: "That's mostly because the locals got greedy and sold their houses for over inflated prices pushing prices up for young locals. It has happened where I was brought up so blame the greedy locals."

Others simply commented "yes please" and "about time".

Councillor Mustoe added: "In Cornwall we sadly are suffering from the erosion of our coastal and rural communities by what can be seen as an unstoppable onslaught of second-home owners.

"It is good that the Government has given communities the opportunity to have their say in where and how future development takes place in the places where they live.

"Cornwall had become, to many, ‘a developer's paradise’. The welcome but long-delayed implementation of the Cornwall [Local] Plan has finally seen us begin to fight back and win cases with the Planning Inspectorate, where previously far too often they were failing.

He added: "In common with St Ives and other plans that are following similar lines, the Mevagissey Neighbourhood Plan seeks to preserve the living and vibrant nature of our community by restricting new builds to permanent occupiers only.

"This is not about penalising second home owners, who contribute a great deal to our economy, but about restoring the balance to the playing field for local people. At least a quarter of the houses in Mevagissey are second homes.

"The average house price is £299,587, which is about 20 times the typical local salary of £15,458. Many youngsters, myself included, who have been priced out of the communities where we grow up.

"Stepping away from economics, this is about safeguarding and preserving our community and something I welcome. I am glad that we are taking positive and proactive steps to redress the balance."