Residents of a seaside village dubbed ‘Hollywood-on-Sea' say they can no longer afford to live there after seeing a string of A-list celebrities snapping up properties. Locals living in Mawgan Porth, near Newquay fear it won't be long before they can no longer afford to live in their own village because there are too many second homes - many of which are owned by Hollywood celebs.
They claim the problem is ruining their picturesque area by turning it into a 'building site', and some said the influx of millionaire buyers has hiked up prices and historic properties are being flattened and rebuilt into California-style houses.
Oscar-winning Australian actress Cate Blanchett was the first celeb to buy a property in Mawgan Porth. She has since been joined by action man Jason Statham, while actress Imogen Stubbs, Fifty Shades of Grey actor Jamie Dornan, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and Hollywood actor Stanley Tucci are also reported to have bought properties in the village.
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It's understood that Aquaman actor Jason Momoa may also be on the lookout for a house there, while villagers have revealed they can also bump into the likes of Kate Winslet and Noel Gallagher on the beach. But locals say the celeb invasion is leading to them being forced out of the area due to the inflated costs and say the village feels like a 'ghost town' in the winter months.
Others revealed they can have wealthy property hunters knocking on their doors offering millions of pounds for their homes even when they aren't up for sale. They now fear 'Cornwall's best kept secret' - located between Padstow and Newquay - is on the verge of being completely overrun by second homeowners.
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NHS worker Kim Emmett, who works in a hospital A&E, said that her mum has had people walk by her house and offer £2 million for their family home. Kim, who moved to the area in 1987, said developers were buying old properties and then flattening them to build ‘cube-shaped homes’.
Kim, 51, said: “It has always been a popular holiday destination as it’s between Newquay and Padstow and near a National Trust hotspot. It's become more and more popular every year. The locals have sold up here and the properties have been taken down and there’s modern complex, cube-shaped, Californian-style buildings instead of your 1930s bungalows.
“There's a lot of posh cubed modern buildings. Those properties are now going for over a million. You can’t buy a property here for under one million. Not one local can afford to buy anything here. We're near the Scarlet Hotel which attracts a lot of celebrities. There's a certain clientele."
She added: "It's good for the builders as there’s constant building work going on. There's a real architectural divide. My mum lives on the sand dunes. She's lived here since 1987 when she bought her bungalow. We've lived there ever since. All the houses around there were knocked down and a posh flat-roofed house was built owned by someone in London.
“He rents them out a lot. There's a holiday home where the likes of Chris Martin and Gary Barlow have stayed. All the houses have been bought up by second homeowners. In the winter all the houses are all pretty much empty. They do bring money to the village, but at the same time local people can’t live here.”
Kim said her mum has seen her fair share of celebrities while living in the area, from meeting Kate Winslet on the beach to Noel Gallagher.
She added: “My mum used to meet Kate Winslet as she lived here. My mum has met a few celebrities on the beach. She met Noel Gallagher but she didn’t know who he was. Gordon Ramsay also lives a few villages over. It is sad to see it changing so much. All the old properties we used to know had been demolished. The good thing is that there isn’t that much space to build or extend. I don’t think it will lose its quaintness, but no one can afford to live here."
Kim Prophet, 30, works as a travel agent in the area and runs her own coffee and cake van during the summer months. She said the village now has a 'mini-Hollywood vibe' to it and she has to book numerous cottages for celebs on their summer breaks.
Kim, from St Austell, said: “I come here with my coffee and cake van. This is my first summer of doing it regularly. It does have a mini-Hollywood vibe. I think it’s doubled in size in terms of properties. People now call me and ask us specifically for the area.
“They’ve knocked down a lot of the old houses. They'll buy them for one million pounds then flatten them. I think it’s not losing its charm for the people who want the luxurious high-end properties. It's now a building site forever, I guess.
“If you just look now at the cliff everything is a building site. It gets more and more expensive. It's dead during the winter, it’s great as a local. I wouldn’t go here for a beach day here in the summer. The car park is rammed.”
Dad-of-two Dan Conquest, 50, and wife Charlotte, 52, a theatre and TV director, have been visiting Mawgan Porth every year for the past four years. The couple, from Guilford in Surrey, were hoping to relocate to the idyllic area but are afraid they won't be able to with rocketing property prices and houses being snapped up by celebrities.
IT worker Dan said: "We're probably about 20 years too late. If we'd bought a house here then it would probably be worth six or seven times that price now. Unlike many buying here we would happily live here but many of the properties are empty most of the time as they are bought as second homes.
"When we first started coming there was hardly anyone on the beach but this year in particular we've found it's a lot busier. More and more people seem to be hearing about the place.
"Speaking to locals you get the impression it's a double-edged sword. The increased footfall and tourism gives a boost to the local economy. But the glitterati descending on the area inflates the prices and therefore the cost of living here. We've heard about all the celebrities buying in Mawgan Porth but we've never seen them ourselves - probably because they are hardly ever here."
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Inside Cornwall's celeb haven dubbed 'Hollywood-on-Sea' - Cornwall Live
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