What do we think of this?

[Goodfellers]

Houses on the NC500 route to be marketed worldwide....ideal holiday let homes apparently! https://www.northern-times.co.uk/new...FK915oWq9XL1jo

[joxville]

You started the thread, why didn’t you share your thoughts first? Are you wanting people to be up in arms that possibly more white settlers could move into the Far North? Or worse, black people? Or gays, even? Those foreigners with their money to throw around and funny ideas about what living in Scotland should be like!

Personally, I have no problem with it. Scotland has always welcomed people from all walks of life and from all around the globe, regardless of creed, colour or religion, and long may it continue to be inclusive. I’m more concerned about the religious bigotry in the part of Scotland I hail from than I am about foreigners buying up a piece of Scotland. That they are willing to consider settling here should be celebrated, or do you think it should be local houses for local people?

[Gronnuck]

I’m all for an inclusive society and would welcome anyone who wanted to move to the highlands. I’m an incomer myself, from the central belt, having retired here over ten years ago.
I would be concerned at a significant proliferation of holiday lets. We have seen what unregulated Airbnb properties have done in our major cities where community cohesion has been undermined. We’ve seen what large numbers of holiday lets have done to some towns and villages in Cornwall and Devon. I doubt we would want the same to happen in the far north.
I’ve no doubt it is a complex issue. If we want prosperous and thriving communities, we have to ensure house prices remain within reach of our young people and their families.
I have a couple of holiday lets near me and frequently talk with our visitors. They enjoy the fresh air and the big skies. They enjoy eating out and seeing the sites. I imagine they contribute to the local economy. However, if there were too many, we might become more like an East Yorkshire holiday camp.

[Shaggy]

Gronnuck, please enlighten me as to how you could ensure house prices remain within reach of our young and their families without also limiting house sales to local people? If people want to come here and settle then they have every right to but maintaining low house prices just for the locals is not the way to do it and will most likely increase the amount of incomers as they will have been better paid when living down south.

[Gronnuck]

Gronnuck, please enlighten me as to how you could ensure house prices remain within reach of our young and their families without also limiting house sales to local people? If people want to come here and settle then they have every right to but maintaining low house prices just for the locals is not the way to do it and will most likely increase the amount of incomers as they will have been better paid when living down south.

I don't know what the answer is, as I said its a complex issue. This is a problem in Cornwall and Devon where there are villages that are almost empty through the winter, where shops and businesses have closed or moved because there isn't a population to sustain them. Subsequently the holidaymakers then complain that there is nothing to see or do and nowhere to go!
If we want a young(ish) vibrant community we'll have to find answers.

[aqua]

My best guess is that one estate agent advertising a few houses on the NC500 website won’t make much difference to anything.