Holiday let market in trouble

macaque_2

Rising voids and falling rents. Perhaps Simon and Vanessa will now be forced to sell their second home in Pembrokeshire to a local family. For some reason I am not weeping tears for their loss.

Over 2008 as a whole there was a 77% rise in the number of British homes registered for lets with us. The market has gone bonkers," says spokeswoman Kate Stinchcombe

The National Trust, which lets out 350 historic homes to holidaymakers, says "there's more competition than ever" and is offering 50% discounts on some spring rentals.

Coastal Cottages of Pembrokeshire is cutting rents by up to 25% on some properties, while website gocoastal.co advertises holiday homes in East Anglia that are not levying the usual premiums for school holidays.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/mar/15/property-holiday-homes-letting

dopester

Rofl.

I'm sure this will be sweet news to "investor" Vanessa Warwick.

http://loveproperty.org/forum/topics/uk-holiday-lets-4-cashflow?page=1&commentId=2206221%3AComment%3A13923&x=1#2206221Comment13923

ad44downey

macaque wrote: »

Rising voids and falling rents. Perhaps Simon and Vanessa will now be forced to sell their second home in Pembrokeshire to a local family. For some reason I am not weeping tears for their loss.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/mar/15/property-holiday-homes-letting

It'd be great to see normal hardworking people benefit at the expense of greedy, selfish people. Bravo

chucky

i nearly got caught out on buying a holiday home, sold before it was completed - it looked a good investment but remote managing doesn't give the holiday maker any level of service.

purch

All of my Holiday(Vacation) Homes are fully booked right through the season....and I'm very remote (about 8 hours when the headwinds are light)

PasturesNew

I was looking at the holiday let market yesterday and today... I noticed a lot of "deals" appearing where there were no deals before.

I also found a holiday let development (different PP to second/holiday home buying) and saw that only 10/29 had been reserved and the completion date was July 2008 ... and they're still not built. Looking at their yield predictions going forward 3 years the sums were crazy.

Yet more places built for investors that were all top of the range. I've been saying for 5 years that as everybody's targetting/building for the posh end of the market they've actually priced most normal people out of the market.

Whereas you could find a clean but basic flat for £180/week 5 years ago, the same place now with the magnolia and laminate makeover would set you back £1200. And as they were all at it, with nobody catering for the budget end of the marketplace, they all poshed themselves out of the market.

nervousmother

Will holliday lets not benefit? I have heard there is increase in tourism in our country due to the weak pound and us Brits are more likely to holiday in our own country, I personally know 4 families who last year went abroad and this year have booked 'holiday cottages' in wales, derbyshire dales and whitby.

We have gone to whitby for the past 5 years. We never use same accommodation and shop around I have just booked for this october, the same price as we paid last year. £490 for a week during half term sleeps 7.

kunekune

Ironically, we are having real difficulty finding something suitable for our holiday this summer! We can only go during school holidays, which is the problem. There's no shortage of customers for those times. I wonder whether part of the problem is that schools have got so strict, no-one dares go during term.

PasturesNew

kunekune wrote: »

Ironically, we are having real difficulty finding something suitable for our holiday this summer! We can only go during school holidays, which is the problem. There's no shortage of customers for those times. I wonder whether part of the problem is that schools have got so strict, no-one dares go during term.

If you read the article in the OP's posting, it said that there's at least one place that isn't putting the prices up for the school holidays.... it's hard to sympathise with parents bemoaning the cost of a break during school holiday periods since they've created their own "rush".

1984ReturnsForReal_2

This is silly article by the Guardian.

OK so the top end rentals are suffering from a fall in demand.

After spending a week searching for a half decent place in the South West & looking at pretty much every single site that deals with properties in that area I am assured that demand is still there in the mid range.

& if the National Trust think they are going to have a huge demand for a 1.5 bedroom property with no electric at £600 per week no wonder they have had to reduce it.

Maybe the National Trust could email its millions of members offering them a little discount off properties if they were that in need?

TJ27

My brother has a holiday home in Pembs. It's been cheap or empty during this winter but he has had absolutely no problems whatsoever filling it for every week during peak season.

I thought that the exchange rates have meant that more people are staying in this country for hols? So surely the worst off are those with second homes in Spain, France, Florida, etc.?

I've recently been to Qatar, Barbados, Spain and France. But the best holiday I've ever had was forty five minutes drive away, in the Wye Valley. So my summer holiday this year is in Monmouthshire again, whatever the exchange rate is.