Ever wondered about the real-life towns behind your favorite TV shows? The beautiful UK seaside town featured in BBC’s “Beyond Paradise” is facing a surprising challenge. While stunning on screen, it’s grappling with a critical housing crisis, making homes unattainable for many locals. What do you think about the impact of tourism and second homes on cherished communities?

Looe, the picturesque Cornish seaside town familiar to many as the fictional Shipton Abbot in the BBC’s popular “Death in Paradise” spin-off, “Beyond Paradise,” finds itself at the heart of a complex and contentious issue: the prevalence of second homes and holiday rentals.

This charming corner of Britain, while a magnet for tourists and viewers captivated by its on-screen beauty, is grappling with a significant challenge that impacts its permanent residents and the very fabric of its community.

A critical aspect of this dilemma revolves around the local housing crisis, where the high demand for short-term holiday lets dramatically inflates property values, rendering homes unaffordable for many who grew up in the area. Local voices suggest that the town’s appeal to wealthy Londoners has inadvertently pushed out long-term inhabitants.

Sara, a local resident, points out that landlords often find it more lucrative to rent properties for just eight weeks in the summer than for an entire year to a permanent resident. This economic reality contributes to a landscape where many dwellings sit empty for a significant portion of the year, exacerbating the scarcity of affordable housing.

The consequences extend beyond just pricing; Sara highlights a hidden homelessness issue, with many individuals resorting to sofa-surfing, camping, or living in campervans due to the “impossible” rental situation and lack of available long-term accommodation within the UK coastal town.

However, not all perspectives align. Sam Chapman, a 30-year-old local businessman who runs Pengelly’s fishmonger shop, offers a nuanced view, acknowledging the town’s reliance on tourism as an essential economic driver, suggesting a delicate balance must be maintained.

Clive Gardner, who lives above his business in Looe’s old town, observes that many houses in the historic back streets, an area prone to flooding, have transitioned into second homes, a stark contrast to how the area functioned 50 or 60 years ago when it was primarily inhabited by permanent residents.

Kelly Jones, co-owner of Uncharted and a lifelong Looe resident, echoes the sentiment of wishing there were fewer second homes, noting the increasing difficulty for local first-time buyers to enter the property market. Despite some conversions of holiday lets back to full-time residences, the barriers to homeownership remain substantial, with lenders imposing numerous restrictions on first-time buyers.

The property market in this Cornish gem reflects the challenge, with terraced homes averaging around £222,399 and detached houses commanding an average of £422,143, figures often out of reach for local wages, thus intensifying the debate around the social and economic impact of second homes in popular UK coastal towns like Looe.