It's hard enough buying one home these days. And for most of us, owning a second one will only ever be a far and distant dream. But imagine if it wasn't. Imagine if you had a spare house that you could just rock up to anytime you fancied. Where would it be?
Estate agent comparison site, Get Agent recently did a little digging to find out which cities around the world are most popular for purchasing second homes. Researchers looked at global search data and ranked cities according to annual worldwide searches for second homes. And, alongside lots of sunny Australian spots, UK cities dominate the top 20.
Gold Coast and Melbourne in Australia ranked first and second but in third place was our beloved city of York, which ammassed over 33,000 searches for second homes. Edinburgh ranked ninth, followed by Inverness in tenth.
Elsewhere in the top 20 was Britain's tiniest city of St Davids in Wales, Bath and Chester. GetAgent also unveiled the most searched for countries for second homes, with the UK landing in third place, after Ireland and New Zealand.
The most searched for UK cities for second homes, according to GetAgent:
- York
- Edinburgh
- Inverness
- St Davids
- Bath
- Chester
- Plymouth
- London
- Durham
- Aberdeen
As nice and cushie as a second home sounds, it's a concept that's becoming increasingly controversial. There's been some significant pushback against second home ownership in the UK, with locals worrying about loss of community and rising house prices. One town in Norfolk even went so far as to introduce a ‘tourist tax’ against second home owners in the area.
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