LOCALS in a British seaside town have complaining of being forced out by “ferrari-driving second home-owners”.
St Ives in Cornwall is a popular spot for wealthy outsiders looking to snap up a spot in the picturesque setting – but residents complain this is leaving them worse off.
The second home-owners are said to park their expensive cars in spaces meant for tradesmen, Cornwall Live reports.
St Ives, which is known for its surfing beaches, sees around 540,000 day-trippers and 220,000 staying visitors every year, and those in the property business appear to have taken note.
One resident said she has been forced to live in a van after her flat was turned into an Airbnb.
Lizzy lived in her grandmother’s five-bed house as a child, but the inheritance was split between her and her five siblings.
None of them could afford to buy the others out on a St Ives salary, so Lizzy rented in the town – where her bungalow was turned into an Airbnb.
She told the Guardian earlier this month: “All tourists have an obliviousness, but it is particularly marked in St Ives.
“They park Ferraris in loading bays meant for tradesmen, or stare at the sky.”
She said she is lucky to pay nothing, parking her van on the cliffs, while a caravan on a bit of land can cost £600 a month.
Tent villages are now present along the luxurious area’s cliffs and valleys, reports say.
Another local woman said she was told to leave her rented home in 2022 and had to spend 10 months in emergency accommodation.
She said the fellow residents were so unpredictable she was afraid to leave her daughter alone in the room.
The woman said: “It’s just a rich man’s playground down here now.
“You used to be able to discern different accents – St Ives, Penzance, Porthleven. Not now.”
A total of 13,140 houses in Cornwall are classed as second homes, recent reports say.
According to RightMove, the overall average price for properties in St Ives was £481,765 over the last year.
Locals are not the only ones who take issue with the town’s transformation.
One disappointed visitor had previously written on TripAdvisor: “Hideous, overcrowded, noisy, covered in litter.
“Why would anyone with any sense want to go to this place which is hell on earth?
“Crowded, noisy, nothing to eat but bad fish and chips and Cornish pasties, and the beach packed full of the morbidly obese, screaming sunburnt children in buggies and people with tattoos.”
Another scathing review read: “The beach is stunning but forget it if you’re trying to park.
“The parking in St Ives is beyond anything I have ever seen before.
“The parking hasn’t been updated in years and it is completely unpleasant where we couldn’t park to even get on the beach.
“We won’t be returning to St Ives ever as we couldn’t get a parking spot despite driving round for hours and no beach is worth the epic stress-levels as a result.”
Local RNLI lifeguard, Stefan Harkon had previously said that the tourism issue is forcing the younger generation out of St Ives and putting their seaside town at risk.
He said: “At times, people in the town feel that they are just operatives in a theme park.
“We work in an area but we can’t live in it. We need quality jobs and more affordable housing.”
