Samantha Baden, of FindaProperty.com, answers readers' questions

Q: Why are more people buying second homes?

A: It's the best of both worlds – a home where you live most of the time and a property by the sea or in the country to which to escape during school holidays or at the weekend.

Sounds great in theory, but given today's challenging economic times, you'd think that most people would dismiss the idea of a second home as an unattainable pipe dream.

And yet, research by PrimeLocation.com turns that assumption on its head. The study reveals that the numbers of second homes in the UK has actually increased, from 246,026 in 2010 to 246,494 in 2011. While this is, in reality, a small increase, it's significant because of the general slowdown in the property market brought about by increasing money worries.

Part of it is explained by looking at where the new homes are being snapped up.

In these days of the 'staycation', Cornwall tops the list with 14,000 second homes, which accounts for 5.7 per cent of all second homes in the UK. This is almost twice as many as the next local authority on the list – Westminster in London – which has 7,152 second homes at an average price of £1,048,599.

Hotspot

But Cornwall's neighbour, Devon, also harbours a second homes hotspot – South Hams – which includes famous names such as Totnes and Salcombe where 9.7 per cent of all properties are second homes, the highest percentage in the UK.

The main factor driving the second homes market forward is the poor rate of return being offered by more traditional investments such as bank deposits, stocks and shares and even ISAs, leading many to see a second home as a more promising place to invest their capital in the medium to long term.

And as more of us look at our plans for retirement, weighing up whether the pension is performing as well as we'd like it to, more ordinary investors are starting to look beyond the traditional means of growing a nest egg.

Pension saving has dipped to its lowest level for a decade according to the Department for Work and Pensions, with 38 per cent of people putting money into plans in 2009/10.

There's not many of us who would say no to a second home, but these days it's increasingly about the investment potential than a place to take the kids during half term.