If you had 100k inheritance, that you wanted to invest in a holiday home abroad, at least two bedrooms

[TheGingerCatsWhiskas]

Where would you look ? Ideally two bedroom, a balcony or sit our space and a sandy beach

Italy! In a heartbeat. You can get some amazing places for that budget in Sicily.

Can I ask how much you can see yourself using your camper? I've had vague idea of getting one, but not looked into it. Is it easy to find sites overnight? Do you get many miles to the gallon? Sorry for so many questions

For me- Cyprus. We have family there and I love it every time we visit.

Otherwise, France because it's a dream of mine to live in France.

I am very envious OP!

Can you rent out the camper?

Holidaying somewhere and having a house there are very different things.

Cyprus still has properties at good prices. Somewhere like Kato Paphos, Peyia or one of the towns on the east side near Protaras. Also weather is pretty good most of the year in coastal towns, colder winters but nothing compared to UK.

It’s not always the best inheritance @TheGingerCatsWhiskas . I have a friend who is stuck with their parents holiday home in a Spanish resort town. It gave their parents years of joy, but now it’s in need of modernisation, and costs £££s in taxes and service charge while the kids can’t sell it because the estate is taking ages to go through probate.

I’ve always dreamed of having a holiday home ( and still do) but agree with pps- in reality, it’s a lot of maintenance and admin from a distance and you can have a lot of amazing holidays for less

I wouldn’t do it full stop. I would spend the interest and some of the capital on holidays instead of buying property abroad, which can end up as an expensive disaster.

If you google 4% rule you'll find a lot of discussion and research on it.

The idea is that 4% (increasing with inflation) is the safe drawdown rate if you want a 50/50 pot to last 30 years. So you take 4% in y1, 4% + inflation in y2 and so on, and you should be able to do this every year whatever happens to markets.

Obviously we're in a longish bull market at the moment so we've all had plenty of years of double digit returns. But that won't last forever, so when the next proper crash comes anyone who has been taking all their returns and still needs to draw an income will struggle.

The rule is designed for people who absolutely need to take an income every year whether markets are up or down (for example retirees). Of course that might not be OP's position if she's just funding holidays- she might be happy to take profits in the good years and stay at home in the bad years, and if so she could probably take more than 4%. She might also be willing to take more risk of running down the pot if it's only there to fund holidays and not basic living expenses. She will need to take account of inflation though.

Your budget is small, and it's not going to buy you that much. If you want to rent the property out, then realistically, you'd need to buy nearer the coast. Your budget isn't coast friendly though, as property prices are usually much higher.

You could look slightly more inland, but within a good driving distance from the coast. You would need a town that offered good restaurants/bars/shops etc, and that was walkable....people don't want to have to drive to go out to eat! Public transport away from major coastal tourist areas, can be hit and miss, so those renting would need to be comfortable hiring a car.

My FIL lived on the Costa Blanca in Spain, near 2 coastal touristy towns, but his house was inland. Yes, you had to drive to the beach, but the complex where he bought, had shared access to a swimming pool. The town is walkable, with good facilities but zero public transport!! Well, it might have had a bus once a day, but you get the idea!! You have to factor in that the rental yield, even in high season won't be as much, compared to being by the beach.

What about this? www.instagram.com/p/DYw6alMkR_c/?igsh=OGZscDlibmY1MWo3

This you could add a pool to? Subject to Italian planning laws.
www.instagram.com/p/DXru7WVAFna/?igsh=MWl5dnJ2NG1rYjB5OA==

i worked with someone who had a house in Bulgaria
what about that part of the world?

It feels a bit arse backwards to me. I'd only countenance buying a holiday home if it was somewhere I was familiar with and knew I absolutely loved or else you could buy somewhere you hate!
We've thought about purchasing a holiday home but sticking £200k into a single property is a lot unless you're there a lot, unless you're happy to rent out. I'd rather invest well and use the interest to pay for my holidays and have zero worries.

I’d go on one holiday to an Ikos resort in the school holidays and then have about £50 left 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Seriously though, I’ve looked at this a few times and always come to the conclusion you need a lot more than that for anywhere decent, I’m nervous of getting a mortgage in another country and I don’t really want the hassle/associated costs of Airbnb.

I put my money in an investment account and gradually moved it across to a stocks and shares ISA each year. It’s done really well over about 5 years now so I’m leaving it there.

We have had an apartment in Cyprus for about 20 years. We never intended it as an investment just a place we love visiting. It probably gets used about 3 - 4 months each year by us and our now adult children. Running costs are pretty low and there has been a bit of a property boom in the last couple of years so it has increased significantly in value. The biggest problem has been since Russia invaded Ukraine. Several properties are owned by Russians who have stopped visiting and are not paying communal fees. The rest of us are paying extra to cover this but in theory will get this back if properties are sold

Holiday homes are what have destroyed the ability for local people to buy houses. AirBnB has a lot to answer for.

Consider how many kitties you could give a nice home to by donating the money to The Cats Protection.

You’re not goo going to get anything nice for £100k I don’t think. Maybe a do-er upper if you have the time and money. For holiday home rentals, people generally want to rent something nice in a good area fairly close to an airport.
Do you have the extra resources to pay taxes, legal fees etc? Someone to do changeovers? Money to replace the goods, redecorate regularly? Do you know about your legal safety responsibilities in that country when managing a holiday let? What the inheritance tax and laws look like?

There’s a lot to think about and do. Do you really want all of that responsibility when you could make a few thousand in interest each year by just investing the capital?

If you do then look at Murcia - the Cartagena/Lo Pagan area. Or somewhere a bit tacky like Benidorm or Salou will have cheap apartments for that budget.

We have had it 2 years and done 15,000 miles. Borrowed a friend’s van for a few nights first in case we hated it. We have camped in tents years ago so we weren’t totally new to the idea, the van just makes it easier. Sites are really easy to find, we do proper campsites, not off-grid - although we have stopped in a couple of 24 hour car parks!
not sure how many miles to gallon, a full tank lasts ages, more economical on long runs than buzzing round town.
Drop me a message if you want to know more

I appreciate that in the UK, we're idiots, and refuse to let homes be built. But in other countries increased demand for homes causes more homes to be built, so owning a home there doesnt cause someone else to go without.

As someone who is half Italian with a house & a business in Tuscany - Italy is not an easy place to have property. I’ve also owned property in France and it was much more straightforward.

Something like this flat in Arles, Provence, France would be much easier.
Arles is in Provence, very pretty, Van Gogh lived there, Roman ruins, so highly Airbnbable.

https://www.green-acres.fr/en/properties/apartment/arles/Aeikz3rajt1ygk39.htm

I’m not against second homes but agree with posters suggesting investing and then going on holidays with the interest.

Do you max out your ISA? I would put it all in a stocks and shares ISA over 5 years (20k per year max). Take out interest earned for a nice holiday each year. As another poster said, 8% interest per year is quite achievable and in a stocks and shares ISA it would be tax free. If you don’t spend all the interest on a holiday, you can leave it in there and then the compounding effect will kick in and you could have quite a bit over 100k in say, 20 years, to pass down.

No faffing with house sales, paperwork, admin, taxes, repairs etc.

That’s a very British approach. Italy depends on tourism - 10% of total economic output, 9th largest travel and tourism market in the world.

Foreigners buy and do up houses in rural areas that no-one else wants. Italians want to live in flats in major cities with a place on the sea.

However 99% foreigners tend to focus on 1% of Italy - Tuscany, Rome, Venice, & the Lakes. There so much of Italy that foreigners don’t consider - Emilia Romagna, Lazio, le Marche etc.

I wouldn't. I would use it for lots of different places. My husband is very changeable. He genuinely doesn't like going on holiday to the same place for more then 3 years.

Me personally if I got a 100K inheritance I would pay part of it to the mortgage, invest some more into our stocks & shares portfolio and renovate the kitchen.

Yes I apply the 4% to my pension pot.