Feedback from owners of foreign holiday property.

gnf_ireland said:
Buy a place for around 250,000 on coastal Spain (no clue on costs either I will add) - 75k deposit and mortgage of 175,000 @ 3% [either in Spain or remortgage house here]. Assume opportunity cost of 75k is 1%. Lets say cost of maintaining the property per year is 3k (no idea, so just a guess). That works out at the annual cost associated to the place is 9,000 per year [750+5250+3000]

Lets say you could take in 6k in lettings (after fees) => between June, 4 weeks of the summer (mid July to mid-August), cheap 3 month Sept to Nov and between Christmas and February midterm. Assume this would not incur taxes as costs are higher than this.

This leaves the place free from January (excluding Feb midterm) to start June (over Easter, May mid-term and June BH weekend), and also free for 1st 2 weeks in July and last 2 weeks in August before going back to school.
If we were to use it say - 1 week at Easter, 1 week in May, 2 weeks at start of July and 1 week at the end of August => 5 weeks of peak usage.
The place is then free for use by friends/family not under the school holiday calendar during the non-peak times from January to June - so plenty of time for them to use it and not complain :)

This would work out at roughly 600 a week in costs for the 5 weeks of usage (9k-6k rental). This would not be bad for peak usage
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I think your calculations are a missing a bit here gnf. If you're looking at travelling over for 4 different times during the year this would cost quite a bit in airfare (assuming a family of 5 this could be in the region of 4K in total). So that would mean a cost of 1400 a week, not 600.
If I compare that with a holiday in a rented apartment it's not much different tbh. I can get a 2 week holiday in the peak of the summer period for a family of 5, including flights, for around 2500 (so 1250 a week).
As others on this thread have shown, having your own place abroad would make you feel that you have to keep going back as often as possible to make it all feel justified - which for children will most likely lead to them feeling negative towards the place.

Alistair, in terms of your post, as pointed out by Leo, you're not comparing like with like at all. You should be comparing an apartment/holiday home rental with owning one.

As some have pointed out on this thread, with AirBnB and other similar websites, it has never been easier to search for accommodation abroad and compare prices, amenties, location, etc. Personally I would see no good reason for wanting to buy and tie yourself to one spot (not to mention the huge financial commitment that would involve).
 
Ceist Beag said:
I think your calculations are a missing a bit here gnf. If you're looking at travelling over for 4 different times during the year this would cost quite a bit in airfare (assuming a family of 5 this could be in the region of 4K in total).
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@Ceist Beag The reason I left the airfares out was because I was looking at the cost of the property rather than the holiday in total. If I decided to go to Spain at Easter, I can book the flights and then debate what type of accommodation I want- hotel, aparthotel, airBnB or holiday home. The price of the flights is independent of this decision. The only time that comes into play is if I feel obliged to go to Spain just because I have a holiday home there.

As I said in a later post, we have decided against it at this stage in our lives - for a lot of the reasons suggested here. However, it was a useful exercise to see if it was something we wanted or not !
 
gnf_ireland said:
The only time that comes into play is if I feel obliged to go to Spain just because I have a holiday home there.
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Yeah that's the only reason I mentioned it gnf. The consensus appears to be that you would feel obliged to travel more often and possibly for shorter periods (such as your example of 3 different 1 week trips) so I think that would result in you taking more flights than you otherwise would so it would result in an additional cost. If you don't own one I would think most people would travel once for a longer period rather than lots of shorter trips.
Anyway, fwiw I think you made the right decision! :D
 
Alistairs post is a comparison of a holiday in a hotel and a holiday in a holiday home. Its not relevant to this discussion.

I agree with the points but its not a very strong argument for buying a holiday home when I can rent one in any location any time I want to go on holiday
 
I think I've mentioned this before here but I’m surprised it never seems to come up in conversation when discussing the purchase of a foreign property.

At some stage in the future, national governments or international organisations will HAVE TO start tackling GHG emissions and our contribution to climate change. This would include the damage that air travel does and I think such a form of travel would be low-hanging fruit for most countries. This would mean making such travel more difficult or, more likely, much more expensive. If this is the case, owning an asset that is too expensive to visit probably won’t make much sense. And the demand for such properties to rent or acquire, would also be hit, so getting rid of them wouldn’t be easy. I don’t know how long that will take but it should at least be a consideration when deciding to make such a big financial commitment. Maybe I’m being optimistic about our motivation to address bad habits or to plan leaving something for future generations!
 
Where/When did you buy property? – 2007, Southern Spain

How much did it cost? What is property value now? - €170000 then, €150000 now

How did you finance purchase? – re-mortgage on PPR

How did you choose property? – Had been to the area a few times and liked it. Planned a 2 week trip to view multiple properties.

Did/Do you rent it out when not in use yourself? – No, never rented. Get stick from my friends but that’s the choice we made.

Was managing the home through the years a big task? – Not at all.

Were local tax's/rates more expensive than you had predicted? – No, not that expensive in reality.

Did/Do you feel restricted going to same location year after year for holidays? Absolutely not. We have made many friends there and feels like home from home when we go.

Did/Do you let family/friends stay in your property? – Yes mostly family but some friends have used it.



Overall positive or negative - are you glad looking back you bought the foreign property, would you recommend to someone who is interested in making this lifestyle choice decision/purchase?

To me, it has been a positive experience. I did not get into it as an investment, it is more a lifestyle choice. I am still working but get there 3-4 times a year. I don’t ever see myself spending more than 6-8 weeks at a time so no plans to retire there. The recurring costs are (excluding any Taxes)

· Annual Community Fees €1100

· IBI (like Property Tax) €500

· Water & Electricity every 2 months when not there about €80

· Water, Electricity incl Air Conditioning during Summer €200

· Bank Fees approx. €150 per year

I live 10 minutes from Cork Airport so it couldn’t be easier to get there. Leave early am flight, pickup car rental and at the apartment by 11am.

It is not for everyone and there will be some unpredictable costs e.g. Air Conditioning breakdown, appliance breakdown, additional community cost of painting the exterior of the entire block etc.

The memories we have had (and hope to yet have) are priceless so I am happy with the decision. We still go on Weekend breaks to European cities and am off on a cruise to the Norwegian Fjords in a few weeks so don't feel tied to Spain in any way.
 
I know several families with holiday homes in the family.
From what I can gather the people paying for it find it expensive but nice to have a holiday home.
But their friends and relatives use them more and have hit the jackpot.
My advice. Find a relative to persuade to buy a holiday home :)
 
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