“A third of current and potential overseas homeowners believe that owning a holiday home will make family breaks more affordable and a quarter feel it would reduce the sheer stress of arranging holidays” – www.homesworldwide.co.uk.
Although everyone looks forward to it, the annual family vacation can sometimes leave you feeling exhausted, stressed and (probably) broke, wondering why you bothered to even leave the office in the first place. In some cases, you’ll need another holiday just to get over the stress of the last one.
According to a recent study by NatWest Bank, more and more Brits are investing overseas partly to avoid the expense and stress of the annual family holiday.
Holiday Hassles
Family holidays are meant to be a time for relaxation and rejuvenation – in a place where you can unwind, away from the stress of the office. Unfortunately though, they often end up as being hugely traumatic.
The hassle and expense of organising the whole affair can be more exhausting than just spending the time in work and sticking to your usual routine.
There’s location and accommodation to consider. Then there’s flights, car rental, packing, taking the kids stuff and (nowadays) airline luggage weight restrictions. It all adds up in terms of time and money. And this is before you’ve even left. Once you get there you’ll have to work hard on not killing each other!
One thing’s for certain, if the accommodation is terrible, the holiday will be “challenging”.
Buying a holiday home
If you’re going to be going to the same holiday destination every year (like most people do) it makes sense to invest there. After all, rent is dead money.
A holiday home can be an excellent investment, cutting the stress out of the annual holiday and bringing in significant rental income for periods that you are not using it. It should just basically pay for itself.
The long-term benefits of owning a second home should greatly outweigh the initial up-front costs. You obviously won’t have to pay for your holiday accommodation anymore – a significant saving. Along with rental yields (mentioned earlier), if it’s a good quality property in a popular location it should accumulate substantial property appreciation.
So where’s popular…
Spain “tops the tables”, in terms of popularity, according to Mike Freer (Head of Business Development at NatWest International Personal Banking).
Top European Investment Locations
Spain and the Canary Islands have been firm favourites with UK investors for many years. The warm climate, friendly locals and chilled out pace of life has attracted more immigrants than any other country in European.
According to homesworldwide.co.uk, “Foreign residents now comprise almost ten per cent of the total population, adding up to 4.48 million out of a total of 14.12 million people”. Spain now has more foreign residents living in the country than Germany or the UK.
A significant proportion of these are British. Spain has a large English expat community on both the mainland and on the Canary and Balearic Islands. The numbers are growing too. Every year more and more families and young couples decide to leave the dreary UK climate and set up home in Spain. Most never look back.
Buying Property in Spain (2007)
Most experts agree that despite the recent property “crisis”, Spain and the Canary Islands still have excellent long term potential. The market is predicted to stabilize and just become more realistic.
Overbuilt tourist traps like Marbella on the Costa del Sol have been hit the worst but this vast country still has many untouched areas with plenty of fresh investment opportunities. Take the Costa de la Luz (Cadiz), inland towards Olvera, Alpujarras region, La Gomera and Fuerteventura etc.
The Canaries offer year round sunshine and warmth, unlike the mainland. As it’s literally always peak season here, buy-to-let investors can charge peak season prices all year long. Tenerife, the largest island in the group is one of the most popular. Click on the following link to find available properties – Tenerife Property.