Where do the wealthy in your country have weekend homes/spend their leisure time?

26 comments

1. Sylt sure is a spot for the wealthy who like to be recognized as such. Other preferred holiday-home spots are Mallorca and Ibiza.

2. Gotland, Stockholm archipelago and the West Coast archipelago. Skiing in Åre.

3. I think it’s either affluent areas of Cardiff or Swansea, or all the second homes in seaside towns in areas like [Pembrokeshire](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-57322524), or further north into [west Wales](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/12/abersoch-second-homes-holiday-wales).

4. Where I live in the French Alps, I’d guess that roughly half (if not more) houses are residents secondaire. It’s quite sad really.

5. Abroad lol

   Or Skagen would be my best guess. It’s the northern most city in Denmark, quite a popular tourist spot, but expensive.

6. More like a summer house than a weekend one, but Marbella and Ibiza are some of rich people’s favourites places.

   Rich people in Madrid are known for having a weekend house in the mountains near the city

7. All over the country, I think. They’ll have a nice house -brand new or restored historic home- somewhere in the countryside or coastline. Like, for example, the Mani peninsula (southern Peloponnese region) and its restored stone homes have become trendy.

   We also have a lot of international wealthy (i.e. Rothschilds, foreign royals, owners of Fiat, etc) that have homes here. I think they’re scattered around too, but two areas that have become concentrations for these people are 1) the northeast part of Peloponnese region, east of Nafplio and 2) the northeast coast of Corfu.

8. Knokke is infamous for being filled with snobby rich people.

   Over the summer, some people organised a facebook event that garnered a lot of attention. The plan was to go to Knokke in shorts and with a cooler box, after two woman in Knokke expressed disdain for that type of people in a street interview. The organisers had to call it off after a call from the mayor of Knokke.

9. Cornwall is known for this, and it’s a recurring news item that there is a shortage of homes there for the locals exacerbated by the second home owners. Also Spain/Portugal.

10. Rich folks around Bucharest, spend their weekends around lake Snagov or in the mountain resorts of Sinaia or Poiana Brasov. Also many have second homes in other countries. Dubai and Greece seem to be very popular.

11. Sochi is the most obvious place. There’s beach and there’s nice ski resort in the mountains. There are some other places, but it’s not like general places where wealthy people like to be. They prefer to buy houses and spend their time abroad.

12. Here in Sicily, those with enough money for a second home tend to stay pretty nearby… having a second home in another part of Italy is unusual.

    So a wealthy person might have an apartment in the city, and a villa near the beach.. probably not more than an hour away, often less.

    In Palermo for example,a villa in Mondello,or in Cefalu,or Scopello, for example.

    This is not confined to the super rich, but they will have a bigger villa 😉

13. I don’t think having a weekend home is considered a wealthy people thing here as almost every other family owns one. If anything it’s that wealthy people already live in large family houses so they don’t have much need for *chata* unlike people cramped in commie blocks.

14. The Dutch have homes in France, Spain and Portugal.

15. Anywhere out in the country; it’s very common to have a wooden cabin in the countryside. They are almost always fitted with electricity and running water, sometimes even geothermal district heating.

    Those that don’t own a cabin can rent one very cheap through their workers’ union.

    Or Spain.

16. Our wealthy apparently have second homes in:
    – Cornwall, especially places like St Ives, Falmouth, Newquay and Padstow;
    – Devon, places like Salcombe, Brixton and Torquay;
    – Whitby in Yorkshire
    – North Berwick in Scotland (East Lothian, my personal favourite bit)
    – the Cotswolds, an admittedly gorgeous part of the country (look up Bourton-on-the-Water and tell me it isn’t idyllic af)
    – generally riverfront properties, especially in towns like Henley-on-Thames

    I would have expected more to have pads in places like Letchworth Garden City in commuting range of London, Alderley Edge in Cheshire, or Abersoch on the Llyn Peninsula in Wales, but that’s just not borne out by the data. Those places must be posh by virtue of their residence’s primary home rather than second, I guess

17. In Austria, it’s either a chalet in Kitzbühel (in the Alps) and the surrounding areas, a lake house in the Salzkammergut, which is a region with lots of picturesque villages and beautiful lakes, or a house around Wörthersee (lake in the very south of Austria), usually in Velden or Pörtschach.

18. (rich) russians flock to marbella, average brits tend towards Benidorm, average germans inhabit mallorca.

    The average family in the 80s dreamt of having a house in Torrevieja, old rich people had summer homes in the north.

    Now just having a summer home is considered being “rich”. Really rich people just leave the country I guess.

19. Small islands in Southern Norway or Vestfold. Blindleia is popular.

    Also large cabins in The mountains. Hemsedal. Geilo. But ordinary people have cabins there too.

20. The Estoril Coast (Cascais, Sintra, Oeiras) is the Portuguese equivalent of the French Riviera, and historically was where a lot of the nobility liked to flock. It’s also been the home to many celebrities, including foreign ones (Edward VII and Wallis Simpson, Ayrton Senna, Juan Carlos I, etc…).

    The Algarve is also popular. It used to be that even middle-class people with a bit of money had second homes here (even if just an apartment), but nowadays with the difference in wages and housing costs being astronomical for the average Portuguese, that’s not as common anymore. Vale do Lobo, Quinta do Lago, and Vilamoura are the fancy parts to live, and are also very green (unnaturally so) and have quite a few golf courses. That being said, Vilamoura is (or at least used to be) a place where people who aren’t as affluent can get an apartment. Like it’s fancy, but you still see average people walking about, whereas Vale do Lobo and Quinta do Lago are very much luxury areas. There’s also quite a few holiday homes in the islands just off the coast in the eastern parts of the region (Ilha do Farol, Ilha de Tavira, Ilha da Culatra, etc…), many of them quite small and not even that fancy, but nowadays it’s very expensive to get a house there.

    I would also say that it’s not terribly uncommon for people to have a place in the Alentejo Coast, but I’m not sure how long that’ll last because I believe it’s set to have a lot of construction of luxury villas and golf courses.

21. If they are within Finland then it’s most commonly in the Southwestern archipelago or on an island in lake Saimaa.

    Or in one of the ski centers in the north like Ruka, Levi, Ylläs etc.

22. The wealthy in Portugal go on vacation to the government. Or a bank.

23. In Norway, in the summertime, the rich vacation in Blindleia, in the archipelago outside Lillesand, in the south. The houses there are ridiculous.

24. Scotland – mostly the islands and peninsulas, e.g. Skyr, Arran, Mull of Kintyre

25. The west of Ireland or sunny & warm places abroad for the most part. Tends towards Iberia, especially the newer the money. Older families would be more towards France. Anecdotally anyway.

26. In Finland, all over the country. But one doesn’t need to be wealthy, it’s very common for middle class to have summer cottages.