Purchasing a holiday home for let

collinsca

Hi

My wife and I will soon be receiving a large sum of money. We had considered purchasing a flat close to us and renting that, but advice we received on that thread made us think it wasnt such a good idea.

We are now considering if we could purchase a holiday home e.g. caravan, cabin, that we could purchase, and importantly, pay a company to manage everything for us.
I have discovered there are comanies out there that do this e.g. https://www.willowpastures.co.uk/buy-to-let-holiday-homes

We may like to stay from time to time ourselves and ultimately one day perhaps spend more time there; so location is key. So for example above, this is in Yorkshire. We would be looking more for Devon/Cornwall.

I wondered if anyone on here does this, and if they have any general advice or leads on locations in Devon/Cornwall.

Thanks!

gwynlas

We live near the New Forest and recently started a holiday let, Permanent buildings eg a cottage or apartment offer more security than a caravan or lodge and in some places could be cheaper. Some of the holiday let compamies offer advice and letting income projections on properties you are comsidering buying, We are able to check our property each time the cleaners have been, I'm not sure that I would be happy not doing this at present it depends on your cleaners and level of trust. Our previous let was managed by a tyrant which was quite reassuring as she chased everyone up including all her owners!

Owleyes00

Cabins and static caravans typically depreciate in value. Better to do as the pp suggests and buy a proper house although be aware that you will be contributing to the dire housing situation in Devon and Cornwall which is pricing locals out of the market so it might not be the most ethical purchase you could make.

daveyjp

Buy bricks and mortar, not timber and chipboard which the site owner may expect you to replace after 10-15 years.

Waunakee

We have (pre COVID) sold our bricks and mortar holiday let in the Lakes.

Initially we turned a reasonable return on our investment but as time progressed it became less financially viable and frankly more hassle than the meagre income generated after costs.

Had we been closer to supervise turn around and general maintenance may have continued a little longer but none of the holiday letting agencies we used over the years were much use.

For context ours was 1 apartment in a block of 6 and four (including ours) had been sold in 
a six month period for the very same reason.

Despite being in a very popular lakeside position with private parking there would be weeks outside of peak season where all 4 properties were vacant.

steampowered

I wouldn't touch holiday lets with a bargepole. They have all the downsides that people told you about with buy-to-let, and more:

- Difficult to be profitable as you can only let for part of the year, and have lots of void periods and costs between tenants.
- High management fees.
- The industry is absolutely chock full of scammers. You only have to do a search through these forums for "holiday lets" to find some real horror stories.
- It can be impossible to sell.
- Awful build quality in a lot of places.

The link you provided was for homes on a particular county park. That's even worse. With that you might find won't really "own" the property. You might find that you are completely at the mercy of the park as to whether you would be ever allowed to sell. There are also lots of horror stories about these parks charging excessive service charges and ground rent.

If you want to buy a holiday home in Cornwall or Devon to go on nice holidays there that's fine, but you should expect to lose money on it - don't see it as an investment.

If you must invest into property, a standard buy-to-let is a far better option. Do consider easier and more tax efficient options such as stocks & shares ISAs and pensions.

Flugelhorn

Waunakee said:

We have (pre COVID) sold our bricks and mortar holiday let in the Lakes.

Initially we turned a reasonable return on our investment but as time progressed it became less financially viable and frankly more hassle than the meagre income generated after costs.

Had we been closer to supervise turn around and general maintenance may have continued a little longer but none of the holiday letting agencies we used over the years were much use.

For context ours was 1 apartment in a block of 6 and four (including ours) had been sold in 
a six month period for the very same reason.

Despite being in a very popular lakeside position with private parking there would be weeks outside of peak season where all 4 properties were vacant.

agree - we had holiday let in the lakes, lettings agency were hopeless and cost a packet. Little income but good profit when we sold it 

[Deleted User]

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collinsca

[DELETED USER] said:

Please reconsider. Property should not be an investment, you are depriving someone else of the opportunity to own a home.

A holiday home!? Ie caravan

collinsca

Thanks for comments. Some really valuable perspectives there.

MysteryMe

Caravans have a short shelf life even though the build quality and amenities are very good these days Sites have rules on the age of caravans allowed on site so you may find after 10-15 years you will have to replace it. If they are let out they will soon suffer from wear and tear so you wont be able to charge as much letting it out.  They are simply not an investment. You could also end up with what happened to me in Devon, have the site sold to travellers which effectively meant I had to sell my static back to them for a pittance after they hiked the pitch fee up by over 30% and turned the site into a dump complete with tarmac trucks. This has happened at a few holiday caravan parks in Devon and Cornwall.