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Second homes: An investment in quality of life as opposed to just property

These homes from home follow a natural cycle, teeming with life in the high summer months before entering into hibernation for winter

Summercove, Kinsale, Co Cork: Despite its name, the idyllic town of Summercove is lived in all year round. Photograph is used for illustration purposes only - this is not the home of the author of this article. Photograph: Ken Welsh/Universal Images Group via Getty
Elizabeth Bond
Wed Sept 13 2023 - 05:30

I live in a cluster of houses on the edge of the sea in west Cork. There are nine houses in all leading down to a small cove. It is perfect for swimming, boating and paddle-boarding over and back to a small, wild island.

The island is home to noisy oyster catchers, seagulls and 15 feral goats. During these Indian summer days the place is heaving with traffic, every kind of water activity and GAA players standing statue-still in the cold, cure-all Atlantic waters.

For the high summer months, the houses overflow with families, friends and grandparents. Now, as September closes, it will fall back to four, maybe five of the houses being occupied. By November, the lights will be on in just two of them. And pitch-dark outside, no street lights, no traffic. Just a few local dog walkers and committed winter swimmers. And so, so many stars.

From now until springtime, each house will light up for random long weekends and, sometimes, the Christmas holidays.

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This is a cove of second homes. They are not to let for holidays or working-from-home (WFH) rentals. They are owner-occupied only. Second homes. Homes from home, if you will.

While this might appear to be a high percentage of second homes around a single seaside cove, it is a pattern repeated in high scenic spots across the country, from Black Sod Bay to Rosslare and everywhere in between.

Of the 60 houses on Lamb’s Head Road, overlooking Derrynane Bay in Kerry, full-time resident Wendy Donnelly counts just six of the properties surrounding her home as principal primary residences. Bill Kelly of the well-known Kelly’s Hotel estimates the split between full-time occupiers and second-home owners to be 50/50 around Rosslare while Cormac O’Sullivan, partner at DNG O’Sullivan Hurley in Ennis, believes about 30 per cent of the properties in Ballyvaughan are used as second homes only, making them unavailable to rent or buy.

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Second homes are different. And second-home owners see themselves as being different to the holiday-home renter or passing tourist. For the vast majority, this home is an investment in one’s lifestyle or quality of life as opposed to an investment property.

Many second-home owners return to the same area time and time again for generations and see themselves as being integrated, or at least accepted, into the local community. From the small, damp caravans of their grandparents they progressed to a mobile home, eventually upgrading to a house. Other families, having migrated further afield, have managed to hold on to the ancestral home. Then, as their finances allowed, they have modernised these properties, dispensing over time with the lean-to extension and the damp bathroom. They love these familial heirlooms and have held on to them through lean times.

It is a big commitment of time, energy and money. “Very few invest without needing a high return in terms of low-key, quality family time”, says Ron Krueger, managing director of Kinsale-based estate agent Engel & Volkers, “with many intending to retire to the second home as soon as possible”.

So positive is this home-from-home experience that major family occasions such as family weddings and the scattering of a loved one’s ashes are often celebrated in the more relaxed vibe of the retreat home. Children return with grandchildren to recreate salty, barefoot days. Even this summer’s long weeks of wellingtons and windcheaters are remembered for the freedom of stinging sand-blown legs and unwashed hair.

“I would never have been keen on the notion of a second house. But we work hard and being able to come here regularly, without much fuss, has had a hugely positive impact on our family life,” says one new second-home “local”.

But are these almost-local neighbours welcomed with warm familiarity? Or are they resented for buying up houses, then fleeing to their city comforts as the winter fog rolls in?

Seamus Galvin says Derrynane GAA Club values the contribution of second-home families. They know them well. Hanging out with local children has nurtured a loyalty to the club that helps fill its summer Cul Camps and significantly bolsters the income derived from fundraising events.

“Local community is small, and like any small family it needs a few in-laws,” he observes, “so, by and large, we welcome them.”

Equally Ballyvaughan Community Development Group gets regular baking donations to the annual Tidy Towns Cake Sale from their part-time residents. They also welcome second-home volunteers for community events such as the village clean-up.

Although high-summer tourist spend is needed to sustain the seaside economy through the lean months, there is a genuine acknowledgment of the low-key, reliable contribution of this sideline community. “They come and go consistently throughout the year. It’s great to see them arriving back in the depths of the darker months,” says Sandra O’Farrell of The Blind Piper pub in Caherdaniel, Co Kerry.

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There is no doubt that some houses are priced to sell to the wealthy international buyer, however. But these are generally big houses with even bigger sea views such as Raffeen House in Kinsale, which sold for a hefty €4.75 million to Nike heir Travis Knight in 2022. “These are houses that are rarely part of the domestic principal, primary-residence market,” says estate agent Elaine Daly of Sherry FitzGerald Daly in Kenmare. “By far, the bulk of these houses are sold to Irish citizens relocating from abroad or moving across the country who intend spending as much time as possible in their home from home. A high percentage have strong ties to the area.”

Estate agents stress that there is arguably better value to be had even a mile inland from the sea.

And while there’s much talk in the media of the potential impact of the vacant homes tax (VHT,) which is due to come into force later this year, Daly, for one, doesn’t see that it will have a significant impact on the second-home market. “Apart from the rare international buyer, owners spend at least a few months working from their second homes, or just retreating to their slower-paced lifestyle,” she says.

“With the average property tax at €350-€500, an extra couple of hundred [euro] is not going to prompt empty [second] house owners to sell up or spend €50,000 upgrading to basic rental standard. The fine needs to be upped significantly and the number of residential days required raised from 30 to 60,” Daly adds.

It is the long-term vacant houses, lying unused and unavailable for rent that actually annoy locals. A report prepared for the Government in preparation for the introduction of the vacant homes tax estimates that there are some 100,000 of these lifeless shells scattered across the country. It’s a remarkable statistic, and unsurprisingly one that has been much remarked upon by our politicians and the members of our largely Dublin-centric commentariat. We’ll leave the last word to Freddie O’Connell of Freddy’s Shop in Derrynane however.

He says: “They [vacant homes] bring neither physical, monetary nor intellectual stimulation to the door. But people love their second homes, and would love to be the local who they see as living the dream.”

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