Two more areas voting on second home sales restrictions

Residents in two parts of Cornwall will vote tomorrow on whether to join the holiday resort of St Ives in banning the sale of new build properties to second home buyers.

There are referenda in the second-home hotspots of the Rame Peninsula and St Minver, where it's proposed any newly-built homes could only be lived in full-time.

The Rame Peninsula encompasses many small communities known to holidaymakers to the south west including Antony, Cremyll, Kingsand, Cawsand, Millbrook, St.John, Sheviock, Wilcove, Crafthole, Downderry, Portwrinkle, Seaton, Freathy and Whitsand Bay and Torpoint.

St Minver includes Rock - the famous north Cornish holiday destination for the rich and famous - as well as Polzeath. The proposed restrictions on the sale of new-build homes would apply to specific parts of the area.

Last year a referendum in another Cornish tourist hotspot, St Ives, strongly supported a similar ban on the sale of new-build flats and houses to second home buyers.

More than 83 per cent of voters backed that plan - 3,075 in favour to 616 against - and turnout was just over 47 per cent. An architectural firm, RLT Built Environment Ltd, challenged the conduct of the poll held by Cornwall Council but the High Court confirmed that the referendum and its result were both valid.

Last summer Jeremy Miller of westcountry agency Miller & Son explained to a national newspaper what the St Ives decision had meant: “People are more cautious and are treading on egg shells a bit. They are still able to buy older properties but it is feared many second house-hunters are now looking elsewhere after not being made to feel welcome due to the public poll”.

He said sales in St Ives had "noticeably dropped" at the time.