RESIDENTIALlettings
Holiday let – safe bet
With ‘stay-cation’ all the rage, UK holiday letting is a great
place to go to get away from the gloom, says Rosalind Russell.
s the property market was although is too early to predict how many
A
‘It will be
spiralling downwards before may decide it’s not worth the candle and
Christmas 2008, a remarkable sell up. Any departures may well be greeted
interesting next
thing happened. A rundown, with delight in areas which have seen summer when
end of terrace cottage with property prices rise beyond the reach of
the Laser World
no garden sold for a reputed £600,000. the locals, or suffer from falling school
That would have been a miracle, had numbers thanks to a seasonal, non resident
Sailing Championships
the property not been in Cornwall, population. However, at present, the are being held, as they
overlooking the River Fowey as it races returns easily outperform most
have 600 entries and
into the sea. Anyone unfamiliar with the conventional investments.
holiday lettings market might still have Even in areas less showy than Cornwall,
they will all have to stay
thought the buyer had more money than holiday homeowners have done well. somewhere.’
sense. However, the modernised cottage On Hayling Island, Hampshire, an owner
ROY PINE MANAGING DIRECTOR, MILLERS
at the other end of that terrace commands can gross £10,000 a year on a £160,000
£1,400 a week at the height of the holiday seafront flat, says Roy Pine, Managing
season, is almost always fully booked and Director of Millers. The firm began more Thames Valley. There used to be six
even in the dark, chilly days of November than 60 years ago as a holiday letting holiday camps, now there are three and
pulls in a healthy £425 a week. agency, but gradually developed into sales, they are adults-only. We are down to
No wonder the holiday home market regular letting and holiday letting. a dozen properties, which will be
still looks like a good bet. Homeowners “Back then we had 90 self catering interesting next summer when the Laser
who let the properties have been able to properties on the books and we weren’t the World Sailing Championships are being
claim a generous raft of allowances against only people in the business,” held, as they have 600 entries and they will
tax, a fact which has not gone unnoticed by says Pine. “Hayling was all have to stay somewhere.”
a Government desperate to claw in every known as Reading by A holiday letting on Hayling in
penny it can to fill a bottomless black hole the Sea, as this was summer can pull in £600 a week,
in the Treasury. The next budget is widely the nearest thing as opposed to a regular long let
expected to hit holiday home owners hard, to a beach for the which gets that amount in a
month. However, says Pine, there
Hayling Island –
is no demand for holiday lets
sea views equal
on Hayling in the winter, unlike
good yields
other more high profile tourist
areas which peak again at
Christmas and New Year.
“The optimum letting unit is a two-
bedroom flat with a sea view,” says Pine.
“The trick is to spend the least money to
get the best results. So you would be better
off buying two flats at £150,000 each, than
a £300,000 house, because you will get a
higher return. However, they would have
to be of a high standard. That is what
people expect these days.”
Some residential estate agencies new
to holiday letting management have found
diversifying has added value to the
business. People who have come to rent for
a holiday have enjoyed the area enough to
actually buy there, through the same agent.
Guy Leonard & Co. in West Sussex
is a long established residential agency,
52 FEBRUARY 2010 PROPERTYdrum
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