Luxury holiday flats converted by squatters into live /work units in North Cornwall

A group of young professionals announced they had converted a building containing luxury holiday flats into live /work units after squatting it for 5 years. The occupants in their twenties and thirties proudly invited rentfreecornwall to inspect the state of the art work spaces and high quality living accommodation. Planning permission is currently being sought for some form of on site micro generation from renewable energy sources, including the use of photo-voltaics and a small water mill running from a nearby stream within the 5 acre grounds of the former manor house. 'We've saved thousands of pounds over the years because as squatters we did not have to pay any mortgage or rent on this beautiful Cornish property,' declared Sam, a freelance civil engineer with clients and projects presently running both in the UK and overseas.



With the work units currently being used as studio and office space for light creative, design and legal consultancy purposes, the squatters insisted they were expecting to stay in the property for at least another 10 years. The £3.1 million house was previously owned by a property holdings company with a registered office in the Cayman Islands. A telephone number for this company proved to be disconnected when rentfreecornwall attempted to contact it. Successive attempts to track down the company have revealed that it went into receivership in 2006.

'I'm not sure if micro-generation is the way ahead,' added Sam, 'but we're trying it out anyway, as it's a great way to save on energy bills. Being squatters of a large and remote Cornish holiday home we're used to not having to shell out cash all the time!'

Rise in Cornish holiday home repossessions creates squatting free for all

Soaring repossessions of Cornish second homes have resulted in an upsurge of squatting houses, flats and chalets around Cornwall, according to housing market observers.

'Families that were previously anticipating a ten year wait on the social housing register have simply moved into unoccupied properties, paying no rent, and saving themselves thousands of pounds a year. As Cornwall has the lowest wages in the UK, this is providing a real economic boost for the area.'

One Cornish holiday home squatter told rentfreecornwall that since they moved into their rural squatted holiday home a month ago, they had seen their disposable income rise significantly, and had started taking advantage of rising interest rates to set up a long term savings account with a view to buying a property. 'Though of course, after a certain period of time, I may be entitled to actually keep the house I'm squatting and not pay rent for,' claimed the squatter.

In villages where previously there had been up to 90 percent of houses unoccupied as empty holiday or second homes, there were now so many new residents squatting these holiday homes that the council was considering re-opening the village school. Post offices around Cornwall were also reporting brisk trade thanks to the increase in full-time working residents in the villages now squatting holiday homes in Cornwall.

Added the housing market observer: 'So many homes have now been repossessed, the banks and building societies simply can't keep up with who owns what and where all the properties are, and don't have the resources to find out who's squatting the holiday homes in Cornwall. It's a free for all.'