Being able to afford a second property is a wonderful thing, especially when you can make some money off the investment. This is why running a holiday let is a popular choice, as it can be used by your family as well as paying guests. As long as the right amount of research and consideration is put into the venture, you could end up with a tidy sum that will provide you with even more property opportunities in the future.
If you are thinking about running a holiday let in Europe, there are a number of things to keep in mind. To get you started on your journey, here are just a few of them:
Where to buy?
The European market is vast, so it may take you some time to identify the best place to buy a property. You will have to make the decision either based on where you like to go on holiday, or where you are most likely to get the best income. It depends on whether you want to put your own happiness first, or make it the best financial investment possible. It is always important to do a large degree of research into what the plans are for local plots of land, and whether you will need to pay high fees as a foreign buyer. This will help you to be more prepared when you make your final decision on where to buy.
Where will you advertise?
Once you have bought somewhere for the use as a holiday let, you will need to let people know about it. Lucky individuals might know enough family members and friends to block out a whole season, but most people will need to advertise their property in one way or another. There are a number of websites online that can connect holidaymakers with your property, but it will become your responsibility to reply to any enquiries, even if they don’t end up booking with you. There will always be an element of admin that comes along with this type of investment.
How will you be paid?
Another thing to think about is how you will actually ask your visitors to pay for their stay. You may want to open a bank account in the same country so you can be paid in the local currency, especially if this is where you have your mortgage payments being withdrawn from. However if you have surplus funds here, you might want to do a GBP from Euro exchange so you can send the money to your UK bank account. This is all food for thought, but it makes sense to get organised.
How will you maintain the property?
Finally, if you are going to be at home in the UK when running your holiday let in Europe, how will you actually maintain it? You will need to get in touch with firms local to your property who can do an element of the management in terms of cleaning and fixing broken items. Of course you will probably want to visit a few times over the year as well, just to make sure that everything is running smoothly.
