Holiday Home - anyone with experience?

lagoslife

Holiday letting is hard work - there are other investments with better financial returns.

But if it is also a lifestyle decision, for family holidays etc. then they can be rewarding.

I agree, laymyhat is an excellent resource, also have a read through http://www.homeaway.com/info/ownercommunity

Norma_Desmond

Be aware though that many local authorities are getting a bit upset with holiday home owners and the Welsh Assembly has even talked about compulsory purchase on these 'second homes'.
Where I live there's a little harbour where two thirds of the properties are holiday lets and the place is an empty ghost town in the winter - and yet many local people can't afford to purchase houses.

I can see both sides of the argument, but it is a bit rum to see rich holidaymakers from Surrey come down here for their 2 weeks and the house is shut up for the rest of the year.

pingu2209

My family has a business letting out holiday rentals in St Ives, Cornwall. It can be lucrative but yes it is hard work. There are 2 ways to go: letting agent or market and manage your own property.

If you have a letting agent they get the bookings for you, market your property and they sort out any problems re one glass missing or something not working etc. However, you pay a fee for it (15-20% average). Also the letting agent will expect you to pay their fee for the weeks you spend in it. So if you wish to go down for a fortnight in August when the rental is, say £1500/week. You will need to pay the letting agent as much as £600 for your fortnight.

Alternatively, you can market and manage your property yourself, letting out to locally and advertising in local press. The downsides to this is that sometimes you can't get enough coverage to let all the weeks you need to cover the costs. Also, if your property is far away it can be a real pain to manage. If the property sleeps 6 you will need 6 of everything. If one holiday tenant breaks a plate, you need to replace the plate (on the basis you can get a matching one to the set) and get it to your holiday rental before the next holiday tenant arrives.

You also need to manage the cleaning of the holiday rental in between each holiday tenant. This can be outsourced but you have to be pretty certain about the cleaners you use. What if one change over day the cleaner is ill? Who will do the clean for you?

The benefits are that you don't pay a chunk to an agent. Also, if you want to go to your holiday property over the Easter you can because you are your own boss. And there is no charge.

I know these are basic things, but I thought they may be useful to you.

gooner63_2

Am I right in assuming that Newquay is the Cornish location, that has a over supply of flats at inflated prices....and that's even after massive reductions ?

PasturesNew

gooner63 wrote: »

Am I right in assuming that Newquay is the Cornish location, that has a over supply of flats at inflated prices....and that's even after massive reductions ?

The developers there have now approached the council to ask for change of use for a lot of their new builds. Everybody and his dog put up new builds for Holiday Use only, and none of them can sell any of them.... so they've now asked if the PP can be changed to be residential. Apparently, they say, HU requires VAT to be paid and people can't get mortgages for HU. If they get the new (residential) permission, the developers will have to contribute to the Section 106 Affordable Housing pot.

One big place, Rocklands, had a posh flat (> £1million) for sale and a raft of other holiday use flats. They must have got the status changed because next thing the regular sized flats were going up as SO .... imagine that, you've paid over £1million for a flat and find out your neighbours paid £65k for a share .... and here they are on the communal roof terrace in the communal hot tub .... causing noise and nuisance when you expected to hob-nob with other people "just like you" and not the lad that serves in the chip shop and his gf who cleans the local pub. http://www.rocklands-newquay.co.uk/

thepeacock

Hiya,

As others have said, it can be a lot of work but it can also be very rewarding. A friend of mine has a big chalet in France and took a lifestyle choice to run it full time out there. They don't make any money but are keeping their heads above water and are happy !

He said there was some good articles here : http://holiday-home-rental.co.uk/owners/advice-and-tips/

I haven't got any personal experience with this one but I know that Blue Chip Vacations have a lot of properties in Devon & Cornwall .. they do a lot of marketing, have a nice website etc etc. No idea how much of a cut they take or what guarantees they can offer though.

have a look - maybe you can chat to someone there : http://www.bluechipvacations.com/property-owner-information/index.php

AbbieCadabra

gold star for gooner! i'm still watching £10k chunks coming off prices at the moment, & that's on the un-restricted ones too!

useful info PN, i wasn't aware of that. the Zenith development that's on the coast road just as you go out of Porth to Watergate, they were all holiday restricted. i think it was completed about 18 months ago, we drove past a couple of weeks ago & they ALL look empty...also, The View which is set to go up on the opposite side of the road must block some of their view, which i'm sure will help! (i'd be surprised to see anything above ground level at the site of The View within the next 2 years though).

BlueChip are good, great image, website & advertising - you certainly pay for it though as an owner, i'm sure it was 25% commission when i was looking into it a couple of years ago. that's purely commision on bookings too, no cleaning, changeover or anything included in that.

from a holidaymaker POV - they are the high end of the market, we've only stopped in 1 property that was marketed through them & although it was 4/5* on accommodation & equipment, i was surprised that there weren't even the basics of fire drill info, fire blanket, no pat testing on electrical equipment & a few other things i'm used to seeing in holiday lets. also, they didn't take a deposit on this property (i don't know if that's the norm for them?) & i know the owner had to pay for professional cleaning & repair to damaged furniture after the previous booking thru bluechip - higher prices don't always ensure a more discerning customer!