Thinking of buying a holiday home

geek84

Hi Folks

I am thinking of buying a holiday home in the UK. A friend of mine suggested that it can be profitable - you could get a home for around £20k and rent it out for £300 pounds per week. Therefore in 2 years, it has more than paid for itself.

Is it really as easy as that? What things would I need to consider in order to maximize my return on the investment, when choosing the holiday home.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

ElefantEd

Depends where it is. Getting £300/week in the winter could be tricky.

lincroft1710

If you are thinking of a caravan holiday home, then you will have to factor in site fees, electricity/gas/water costs, advertising, insurance, breakages, maintenance.

There was a thread on one of the boards a week or so ago which painted a rather different picture, not profitable at all.

citykid5

I think for a budget of around 20k you must be talking a static caravan?
All I can say is don't do it, you'll never make any money at it and only line the pocket of the park owners

QuackQuackOops

geek84 wrote: »

Hi Folks

I am thinking of buying a holiday home in the UK. A friend of mine suggested that it can be profitable - you could get a home for around £20k and rent it out for £300 pounds per week. Therefore in 2 years, it has more than paid for itself.

Is it really as easy as that? What things would I need to consider in order to maximize my return on the investment, when choosing the holiday home.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

No, it isn't as easy as that.

Take a different approach. Buy a 20 bed hotel for 1 million, charge £100 per night per room. In two years it will have more than paid for itself.

I really wish it were that easy but it isn't. You have site fees (if applicable), gas, water, electricity, interest on loan (if there is one) Insurances galore, bedding, cleaning, maintenance, tax, wages, breakages, advertising, agency fees...the list is endless.

If it is not a real house such as a chalet, caravan that kind of thing, then paying off that 20,000 will become a millstone arpund your neck.

DermotFlanigan

And a lot of sites require you to change the caravan every 3-5 years.

Lost2

we used to have a static caravan what a pain in the neck it was
its just money money money you have to pay Rates Gas Electric Water Standing Fee's Insurance we had to pay for a concrete stand for are caravan because you cannot leave them on the ground we also had to make several trips in the winter time to check the caravan also it was broken into so we had to go down and sort that lot out
it's just not worth it and as DermotFlanigan has posted you have to have a new caravan every 5 years so you not only have that expense every5 years you have towing fees to pull old caravan off then new one on then fee's to have it all reconnected

the_matrix

Bad idea IMHO.