More houses – but not to meet housing need - luxury housing in Cornwall

Much is made of the total of 2,700 dwellings built each year in Cornwall.Those who (incorrectly) think that this means the housing 'crisis’ is on the way to being solved, need to look at what the figures mean. To assume that you build a house and it is magically occupied by a local resident, is a very simplistic and naïve approach.

One aspect of housing supply which is obscured in the media coverage is the impact of luxury housing on the figures in Cornwall. It might be assumed that luxury housing has a limited to impact. However, analysis suggests otherwise.

An internet search reveals a total of at least 450 luxury houses either having been completed or being built at the present time. These are purpose built developments, designed for the luxury market. Some of these developments include properties defined as affordable such as shared ownership.How affordable these actually are in a Cornish context is debatable. A matter to be followed up at a later date.

Of the 450 dwellings identified, about 80% are purely open market, that’s about 360 dwellings. An examination of the prices clearly show that they are unavailable to most Cornish residents. So why are they being built? What purpose do they have, other than to create profits for developers?

Using the 360 figure, that’s quite a lot of dwellings and one question is what proportion of all dwellings built does it represent? That’s difficult to calculate. Over a three year period that would be 120 per year or 4%. That is probably a at the lower end and there are probably smaller luxury housing developments which have been excluded from the calculations.

What is to be done?

One problem is the lack of data. At a minimum, data for each year for luxury dwellings on permissions granted and dwellings constructed, needs to be produced.

More fundamentally the planning system requires reform to bring a halt to luxury housing development.

The marketing of Cornwall as a lifestyle destination should be addressed, it creates ‘demand’ from outside Cornwall and adds to housing pressure and impacts on environmental sustainability.